This Our Town of Halloween
by TheCartoonusMaximus
Summary: Yugi, Ryou, and Marik fall through a Rift into the Hollow World, an alternate world where monsters live. They only have two options - escape from this world and get back home, or make their new home in this world. / Horror themes, dangerous situations, eventual relationships between humans and monsters. Y/YY, RB/YB, M/YM. COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

**After years of thinking of writing this story, I finally am. (Woop-woop!) My YGO Halloween fic, inspired by the lyrics to the song "This Is Halloween" from 'the Nightmare Before Christmas.'**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the characters in this story, or the source of this story's inspiration. The characters belong to Kazuki Takahashi and Konami, and 'the Nightmare Before Christmas' belongs to Disney. However, the plot and story itself is my own.**

 **Pairings: Puzzleshipping/Blindshipping (Yugi x Atem), Tendershipping (Ryou x Bakura), Bronzeshipping (Marik x Malik), light Blueshipping (Seto Kaiba x Kisara), light one-sided Dungeonshipping (Otogi x Pegasus)**  
 **Rating: T**  
 **Warnings: horror themes, references to danger/violence**  
 **Summary: Yugi, Ryou, and Marik fall through a Rift into the Hollow World, an alternate world where monsters live. They only have two options - escape from this world and get back home, or make their new home in this world. And, as time passes, both options begin to sound impossible.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Down, Down to Goblin Town

written 7/1/2018

published 10/8/2018

1,153 words

* * *

 _Boys and girls of every age_

 _Wouldn't you like to see something strange?_

* * *

It was a strangely cool evening in October when Halloween finally rolled around. A sharp wind whistled through the trees, blasting three young men square in the face. The palest of the three, an albino with pink eyes and hair just as pale as his skin, cried out in displeasure as he pulled an old sheet more firmly around him.

The blonde Middle Eastern American beside him glanced at his friend with a frown. "Don't handle the cold too well, do you?"

The albino shook his head, but didn't answer. Instead, the young man sitting on the other side of him answered for him, violet eyes peering out from behind shaggy black hair and blonde bangs. "Ryou's body temperature has always been naturally low – he doesn't generate his own heat all that well."

Marik's frown deepened. He'd only met Yugi and Ryou a few weeks ago. The two had apparently grown up together in Japan before immigrating to the States as teenagers, and he had yet to see them apart from one another. He'd run into them on the streets about a month or so ago, and the three had sought shelter together from the blistering heat. Since then, the pair had stuck with him, sharing with him what provisions they had and accepting his in return.

They were homeless. And if they didn't look out for one another, who would?

Marik had been kicked out of his own home as a teen after arguing with his father over a very particular subject. From what he understood, Yugi and Ryou had been living with Ryou's father and had suffered a similar experience. Now, with an incomplete education and not a dollar to their names, the three males mostly moved from shelter to camp to shelter, trying to find semi-permanent jobs and roofs over their head.

This evening, the three had been in camp with several others, emphasis on _had_. Since it was Halloween night, a group of dumb college students had come out during the night, looking to party and get themselves drunk away from prying eyes. The party had moved too close for comfort to the camp, so everyone had quickly and quietly grabbed their stuff and moved out. Now, Marik and his two newfound friends were on the move, searching for a new location to set up some sort of temporary shelter to stay in for the night.

The blonde grinned suddenly as he spotted a fence, recognizing immediately what it was. "Guys, look!"

The two Asians followed his gaze, Yugi voicing their concerns. "... A cemetery?"

"Yeah!"

"Won't we get in trouble if we spend the night in a cemetery?"

"Not if we're quiet," Marik answered, approaching the fence. He gestured for the other two to follow him. "I've slept here before and been fine."

"I don't know..." Ryou's eyes shifted to the side, suggesting discomfort with the idea. "It doesn't sound-"

He was interrupted by Yugi, who suddenly pointed into the cemetery, his eyes wide. "I think someone else is already in there!"

Confused, Marik turned, following the direction of Yugi's raised finger. Sure enough, three moving figures could be seen in the graveyard. They seemed to be crouched in a circle on the ground, but the blonde couldn't tell what they were doing from this distance.

Yugi's eyes were better. "I think they're digging up a grave!"

Realizing how right his companion was, Marik's eyes widened. "What kind of disrespect-?!" Unable to contain himself, the blonde took a running start, launching himself over the fence and taking off towards the figures. "Hey! Hey, you!"

The figures suddenly jerked their heads up, staring at Marik is surprise. They looked like children, their small frames almost completely covered by Halloween costumes and masks, candy sticking out of their mouths. One of them was so surprised his jaw dropped open, his lollipop slipping out from his lips and hitting the ground with a dull 'clunk.'

"Quick, get in!" one of the figures ordered her two companions. To Marik's horror, the figure pitched herself forward, falling into the open grave. The other two followed suit, leaving not a single trace of their presence except the fallen lolly.

Marik stared at the ground where the kids had just been sitting. The longer he stared, the more baffled by the situation he became. The hole looked like an open grave, but there was no marker beside it or coffin within it, and there was no heap of removed dirt. It almost looked as though a grave-sized hole had simply opened up in the ground.

Yugi and Ryou slowly came up behind Marik, still carrying their meager belongings on their backs. Ryou still had his sheet wrapped tightly around his shoulders, and now Yugi had Marik's discarded backpack in his hand along with his own.

The blonde turned to look at his friends, pointing vaguely at the hole. "It's empty, and... They jumped in. They jumped in and it's empty!"

Their eyes widened in surprise at his words before staring at each other for a moment. Ryou took a step forward, peering down into the hole curiously.

"You're wrong, Marik. It's not empty." Ryou's voice was eerily calm and betrayed nothing. "There's no bottom to it."

Yugi and Marik joined Ryou at the edge of the hole, staring down beside him. To their surprise, the hole went deep, down into the ground, seemingly never ending. It really _was_ like a chasm had simply opened up in the earth.

"If there's no bottom to it, where did those kids go?"

"HEY!" A older man's voice interrupted their thoughts. The groundskeeper had spotted them, his flashlight illuminating the area around them. "WHAT'S ALL THIS NOISE?"

The three young men froze in place, terrified of being caught. After a beat, Yugi took a step towards the hole, dropping Marik's backpack. "I'm sorry, guys, but I can't go to jail!"

"Yugi-!" Marik watched in horror as Yugi jumped into the hole, falling down into the earth, vanishing from sight. Ryou screamed, but quickly followed behind his friend. As taken aback as he was by his two friends vanishing, Marik wasn't surprised to see them go together – he had yet to see them separated, after all.

Marik hesitated for a minute, his eyes tracing a horrified path between the open, gaping maw of earth at his feet and the approaching groundskeeper, flashlight aiming directly at his face, almost blinding him. But, then his feet moved, pitching him forward into the hole, following after the only two friends he had in the world. The air whizzed past Marik's ears as he fell into the blackness. The hole was completely and utterly empty, with nothing to break his fall, or even slow him down.

His scream was the only thing that filled the empty space as he fell.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- The title for this chapter is taken from song lyrics in J.R.R. Tolkien's 'the Hobbit,' wherein Bilbo and his friends are captured and taken down underground by an evil group of goblins.**

 **\- Marik's concern over the sanctimony of the grave is inspired by his canon position of Tomb Keeper.**

 **\- I chose to make the characters Americans because Halloween is a very American holiday. That's really the only reason.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: the Sun Goes Down and We Travel Through Nightmares

written 7/1/2018

published 10/8/2018

1,558 words

* * *

 _Come with us and you will see_

 _This our town of Halloween_

* * *

Yugi slowly opened his eyes, a dull ache settled in his limbs. He'd had to sleep on the ground again, and he must have been tossing and turning from his unsettling nightmares.

"Ryou?" he whispered, seeing his friend awake beside him. "You won't believe the dream I was having – we went to a cemetery, and we fell into a grave. I was falling and falling forever! I don't know if I ever stopped or not."

The albino pursed his lips, frowning. "It wasn't a dream, Yugi. This is where we landed."

Yugi blinked and sat up, turning his head and taking in his surroundings, slowly realizing how strange and unfamiliar their location was. There were dead trees for miles in every direction, so thin and sparse that they obscured nothing from view. The gray sky complimented the ground, which was dotted with clumps of dead grass and was so full of moisture it was almost swampy. Decorative stone blocks popped up here and there, like a graveyard that grew haphazardly from the ground.

"How did we get here?"

"I don't know," Marik's voice answered, surprising Yugi with his presence. "But I don't think we'll be going back the way we came."

Yugi glanced up, wondering where they had fallen from. To his surprise, there was some kind of hole in the cloudy air above them, as though the sky itself had been broken open. The hole grew smaller and smaller as he looked at it, seemingly repairing itself.

Sighing, Marik stood up, backpack slung over his shoulder, then turned to the other two. "Are you coming?"

"... Where?"

The blonde shrugged before scanning their surroundings. "I don't know. But it'll be better than just sitting here, right?"

Pulling their things together, Yugi and Ryou rose to their feet, moving to follow their friend into the dismal scenery.

.

.

.

The land around them was like a graveyard that literally grew, like plants in a forest. The occasional mound of freshly unearthed dirt made the three young men uncomfortable, but there didn't seem to be any open graves, for which they were thankful.

"Where do you suppose we are?" Ryou asked, his pink eyes darting around nervously.

Before either Yugi or Marik could answer, a new voice spoke up from behind them. "You're in the Forest of the Dead, child. But it seems that you oughtn't be here."

The young men all turned around to see who the newcomer was, finding themselves face-to-face with what appeared to be a small girl. Her long black hair fell in braids down her back, so long that it touched the ground behind her. Some locks of her hair were wrapped around the necks of small dolls, as if the hair itself was made of nooses. She wore an elegant dress and had a large sunhat on her head, the wide brim hiding her face from view. She held a watering can in her hands, and she seemed engrossed in carefully pouring water over the graves.

"It'll be harvest time, soon," she explained patiently, as if she were talking to a toddler. "But if you're waiting to pluck the fruit from the soil, you boys are going to have a long wait."

"Who are you calling a 'child,' kid?" Marik scoffed. "We're older than you."

"Are you?" She answered, lifting her face to stare up at them. Three sets of eyes stared down at her, while a set of black buttons stared back, sewn into her face where her eyes should have been. Her nose appeared to be a triangle of some kind of red material, large stitches attaching it to her skin, and her mouth was a simple line, crudely painted across her face.

Ryou let out a gasp and fell back, landing hard on his bum. Yugi and Marik each took a step backwards, raising their hands in alarm.

"What—what the hell?!" Marik's raised hand balled itself into a defensive fist. "What _are_ you?!"

The girl smiled up at them, her painted line of a mouth twisting and contorting the shape of her face like a ragdoll. "Me? Why I'm Adina the Soul Eater, the forest groundskeeper. And you boys are trespassing!"

Yugi felt like his eyeballs were going to go dry from staring at her, but he couldn't tear his gaze away. Her mouth didn't move when she spoke, but rather her voice came from all the little dolls that hung from her hair, as if they were an extension of her in some way.

The doll-like girl looked at them in confusion, seemingly baffled by the way they were staring at her. She straightened up after a moment, as though seeing them for the first time. "Oh... You're living people, aren't you?"

She laughed, the tittering sound echoing through the mouths of her many dolls, and Yugi couldn't help but notice how it was yarn that grew out of her head, not hair as he'd previously thought. "I'm sorry, I should have realized sooner! It happens sometimes – the Annual Rift has sent humans tumbling down here before."

She set down her watering can, holding her hand out in greeting, not offended in the slightest when none of the men shook it. "Let's start over, 'kay? As I said, I'm Mary Adina, and I'm what's called a 'Soul Eater.' You would probably call me a monster, or you might equate me with your 'grim reaper' concept."

"Reaper?"

"Monster?"

"Yup!" Adina smiled brightly at them, her button eyes shimmering oddly. "You lucky boys fell through the Rift, and now you're in the Hollow World, a world separate from your own. Your own world is the Surface World, and it's meant for humans and animals, meant for the living, but the Hollow World is meant for monsters and beasts, and the dead."

Yugi felt his blood go cold. "What do you mean, 'dead?'"

"Oh, you're not dead, child!" Adina waved off his concerns with her hand. "Er, you're not yet, anyway. But if you're going to be here for very long, you'll have to be especially careful – while most monsters are more than happy to eat each other, living humans are considered a rare treat. I myself eat the souls of the deceased, so, until such a time as you die, you boys have nothing to fear from me."

Yugi's head was spinning, terror gripping his gut like a fist. When he glanced down at where Ryou was still sitting slumped on the ground, his friend didn't look any better.

"We're not staying here," Marik announced sternly, causing both Yugi and Ryou look at him sharply. "And so long as you're being so helpful, why don't you tell us how to get out of here?"

"It's not that easy." Adina's face contorted as she frowned. "The only path between the worlds is a Rift – like that hole in the sky there." She jerked her head in the direction of that black spot overhead Yugi had noticed before. Yugi saw that it was even smaller now that it had been when he first noticed it. "But if you just want to get out of the forest, I'd suggest you start walking _that_ way."

The young men followed the direction her finger was pointing in, but they could see nothing. "What's that way?"

"The nearest town is over that way," she answered. "Halloween Town. Named for the holiday celebrated by the living, but not for the same reasons for which the living celebrates it." She smiled enigmatically. "You might be able to find some help there. That is, if the Knights of Fright don't get you first."

"'Knights of-?!'"

A scream echoed through the still air before Marik could finish. A scream of fear and pain. A scream of _death_ , Yugi realized.

Adina shuddered. "Someone didn't make it home before curfew, sounds like. The Knights of Fright got 'em."

Fear gripped Yugi's heart, and he swallowed thickly. "Please... Who or what are these Fright Knights?"

Adina made a face as though she were pursing her lips. "The Knights of Fright are no delight, I can tell you that. They are dragon soldiers who have taken it upon themselves to ensure the law of the land, torturing and devouring any lawbreakers they can find. And living humans like you? Heh, you'd probably smell like a delicious dinner to them."

She glanced up at the black spot in the sky. "You boys have a choice to make, it seems. The forest is my own property, and as long as you're here, as my guests, the Knights of Fright can't get you. But, your only way home is closing fast, and I can't help you with that."

"So, we can stay here and definitely be trapped forever," Marik summarized, shoulders drooping. "Or we can try to make it to town to look for help and maybe get in even more trouble." He turned to Yugi and Ryou. "What do you guys think?"

Ryou wrapped his arms around his knees. "I want to get out of here! I want to go home!"

As ironic as the statement was, since none of the three had homes to speak of, Yugi agreed with the sentiment. "If we may be doomed either way, let's try to escape now."

After a beat of silence, Marik nodded. "Alright. Let's go find this 'Halloween Town.'"

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- The title of this chapter refers to the lyrics from the first opening theme of the anime 'Soul Eater.' This is a reference to Adina's monster type and title.**

 **\- Princess Adina/Princess Mary is a character from the "YGO Duel Monsters" anime. She's a video game character created by Seto Kaiba, and she's best known for looking strangely like Mokuba.**

 **\- Adina's monstrous appearance was heavily inspired by watching too many creepy videos on YouTube about the real life possessed doll, Annabelle, and the Island of the Dolls. Her special abilities, on the other hand, are inspired by Soul and the other weapons of 'Soul Eater.'  
**

 **\- 'The Knights of Fright' is a reference to an episode of "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" titled 'A Night of Fright is No Delight.' Meanwhile, Yugi calling them 'Fright Knights' is a reference to the movie 'Fright Night.'**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Pumpkins That Scream and the Legs of a Man

written 7/1/2018 – 7/11/2018

published 10/8/2018

words: 1,850

* * *

 _This is Halloween, this is Halloween_

 _Pumpkins scream in the dead of night_

 _This is Halloween, everybody make a scene_

 _Trick or treat 'til the neighbor's gonna die of fright_

* * *

The walk seemed long and agonizing, with no visible change in any direction. The trio of males trudged on, occasionally peering over their shoulders to look at the ever-shrinking dark spot in the sky. The only thing that marked the passage of time was that same screaming voice from before, new outcries piercing the air in fairly regular intervals.

Ryou bit his lip. He hoped they could make it back to their home world soon; he liked imagining nightmare landscapes, not living in one. The scenery around them remained as spooky and dreary and _dead_ as it had seemed to him when he'd first seen it, and it only got worse the further they walked, the graves and dead trees becoming fewer and further between.

They reached what seemed to be the edge of Adina's forest. The trees were all gone now, taking away what little coverage they had. They could see a sprawling town some distance away, but between them and the town was a lengthy expanse of barren, empty land, with almost no plants or outcroppings of any sort in any direction.

Marik walked in front, standing tall and erect, his lavender eyes scanning all around them for potential threats. He stopped suddenly, pressing his lips together in a tight line and raising a pointing finger.

Ryou and Yugi turned to where he was pointing, their blood running cold. In the distance, they could see three enormous winged creatures attacking something on the ground, like vultures descending on an animal carcass. They couldn't see what the creatures were attacking from that great a distance, but, whatever the unfortunate victim was, it seemed to be where the screams were coming from.

Ryou shrank in on himself when another scream pierced the silence. There wasn't anything he could do for the dying creature, but that didn't mean he didn't feel terrible about it.

The three males tore their eyes away from the horrendous sight, searching instead for the nearest cover on the otherwise barren landscape. Marik pointed out some rocks and clumps of plants that cropped up here and there between the town and the edge of the forest.

"We'll have to go about this methodically." The blonde pointed to each location in turn, as though he were playing connect the dots. "But if we move fast enough, they probably won't notice us."

Yugi gave the sky another look. "We better hurry. Our ride home is closing fast!"

Nodding, Marik moved first, leading the charge through the wasteland.

They reached an outcropping of trees first, and so far no fiends had noticed them. Ryou sat down on the ground to rest his legs for a moment, unused to running very quickly. There was fairly healthy looking patches of grass and moss beneath the little shade the trees provided, as well as several small pumpkins, their leaves and vines spreading out and curling around everything in the surrounding area. Ryou thought one of the vines may have moved and brushed against his leg, but he knew that was impossible.

The screaming had stopped by the time they'd reached the third outcropping, and, as glad as Ryou was for the stranger's pain to be over, the sound of deathly silence permeated the air and made his skin prickle with discomfort. His ears began to ring, his own body trying to combat the deafening silence that surrounded him.

Slightly disoriented, Ryou took a step too close to one of the pumpkins on the ground, the leaves and vines brushing against him. When he tried to take another step, he found he couldn't move his leg anymore.

Peering down perplexedly, the albino's eyes widened, his mouth dropping open and letting out a sharp cry. The pumpkins' vines had actually grabbed him by the ankles, and were twisting higher and higher up his legs. He heard Yugi and Marik let out cries of their own as the same thing happened to them. The pumpkins, on the other hand, _laughed_.

" _Tributes for the PumpKing!"_ the vegetables' voices whispered and tittered, their vines climbing higher and wrapping firmly around Ryou's thighs and starting to reach for his waist, pulling him down into the dirt. _"Delicious feast for our lord!"_

Marik swore and tore open his backpack, searching for something. He found it presently, and began waving his hand around wildly, metal flashing through the air. Dimly, Ryou recognized Marik's pocketknife, the sharp blade embedding itself into the flesh of several pumpkins, severing the vines from the bulk of their body. A loud, screaming wail erupted from the outcropping, as Marik continued to slash and stab himself and his friends out of the pumpkins' grips.

As soon as he was freed, Ryou scrambled over to Yugi's side, clutching his friend and sobbing. "We were almost eaten alive... _by pumpkins_?!"

"It could have been worse..." An unknown voice spoke up from behind the young men, sending chills down their collective spines. Slowly turning around, the three humans stared at the newcomer, a large lizard- or dragon-like creature with teal scales and a large scar across its eerily human face. The creature grinned at them, revealing its mouth full of rows and rows of sharp teeth, fresh blood still coloring the tips. "You could be eaten alive by a Dragon Knight!"

"Don't hog them to yourself, Timeaus!" another dragon whined, this one with red scales. A red-stained tongue poked out of its mouth, licking along its humanlike lips. "I call dibs on the blonde. He looks like he's still got some fight in 'im, and you know how much I like a fighter!"

"You shouldn't play with your food, Hermos," a blue dragon muttered upon arrival. He looked over the three humans with crystaline eyes. "It's poor manners."

"Oh, shut your trap, Critius!"

The teal dragon cleared its throat, getting the red dragon's attention. "Stop bickering, you two. After all, it's not every day three succulent _humans_ land within our grasp!"

Ryou tried to swallow, but his mouth had gone dry. He and his friends were about to die, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Or, he thought there was nothing, but then Marik picked up one of the pumpkins he had killed, lobbing it straight at the teal dragon's face. "Eat _this_ , ****face!"

The dragons all let out surprised outcries as they were pummeled with pumpkin corpses, yelling when the vegetable juices got in their eyes, preventing them from seeing. Marik yelled at Yugi and Ryou to start running, while he continued throwing until he ran out of pumpkins to throw. As soon as he could, the blonde turned and fled, catching up with his two companions.

Not even bothering trying to conceal themselves in the occasional outcropping of rocks or foliage, the trio made a beeline straight for the town itself. The town was surrounded by a large wall, with an enormous gate of iron bars seemingly being the only way in. The iron bars were shaped like an intricate spider web, with glowing, paper lanterns shaped like bats and skulls and jack-o'-lanterns hanging from it in places. The words 'Halloween Town' stretched out across the gate, the letters formed of iron and melded into the gate itself.

It was a rather pretty sight, Ryou thought to himself, with the lit lanterns and the artistic metal work. But there wasn't any time to think about that right now.

"Hey!" Marik yelled as they approached the gate, barely skidding to a stop before slamming into it. "Gatekeeper?! Open up! Before you have a murder on your hand!"

"I don't get the feeling that's something he'll care about, Marik," Ryou wheezed, hunched down onto his knees. He was breathing heavily, winded by the running.

A stony face appeared in the wall beside the gate. "What do you want?"

Ryou gasped aloud as a body emerged from the wall itself. The figure stood at about seven feet tall, with a body made of stone and iron, as though a piece of the wall and gate had sprung to life. The figure's build reminded Ryou of a lion in some aspects, but it was almost human in shape, with broad wings that grew from its back. While most of the creature's body seemed to be built out of stone and mortar, blending in with the wall behind it, the wings on its back were formed from the same intricately welded iron at the wall gate.

"It's past the town's curfew, little humans," the creature said, sneering from behind its mane of hair. "I am Anubis the Sphinx, Keeper of the Gate. No one gets in or out of this town without my permission, and especially not after curfew has past and the gate's been locked for the night."

"But we need to get in there!" Ryou moaned.

"Please, listen to us!" Yugi pleaded beside him. "We're being chased by bloodthirsty monsters!"

If anything, the gatekeeper looked amused. "Kid, this town is nothing _but_ bloodthirsty monsters."

Marik growled. "That may be true, but we were told that there was a possibility someone here could help us get back to the Surface World, and we would rather run the risk of seeking help than staying out here with certain doom."

"You're really that desperate, hm?" The gatekeeper cocked his head a bit, smirking down at the trio. "Tell you what: I'll let you in, but only if you can answer my riddle."

Marik sputtered indignantly. "What the _****ing_ – That's not _fair_!"

"Better make your decision fast, little humans." The sphinx lifted a clawed hand, pointing back over the humans' heads. "Before your 'certain doom' gets here."

Ryou turned to look over his shoulder, his eyes widening in fear as he recognized the familiar silhouettes getting closer. "The dragons are coming!"

"Fine!" Marik snapped. "We'll answer your riddle!"

"I thought you might." The gatekeeper grinned as he leaned back comfortably against the city wall. "What creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at midday, and three legs-"

"A man!" Ryou yelled in annoyance. He'd read this riddle a thousand times in his life, to the point where the very words made him sick. This riddle was the bane of his existence, and the irony of how it might save him from a dire situation did not go unnoticed by him. "It's a man, okay? A baby crawls, an adult walks by himself, and an elder walks with a cane! Can we go in, now?"

The sphinx blinked at him surprise, but then shrugged. "Fine. If that's what you want." He reached out an arm, gesturing in the air, and the gate flew open as if by itself. "See you around, mortals." Having said that, the creature vanished once more, as though he had melted back into the wall.

Marik blinked in confusion, but then grabbed onto both Ryou's and Yugi's wrists, pulling them as he ran into the city. "Let's go!"

The gate clanged shut behind them, preventing them from turning back.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- The PumpKing is an actual card from the card game. This fact is the funniest thing to me.**

 **\- Timeaus, Hermos, and Critius are characters who only appear in the DOMA/Waking the Dragons arc of the "YGO Duel Monsters" anime. They aren't villains or monsters in the original canon, but I decided to make them evil for this story.**

 **\- Anubis is from the "Pyramid of Light" movie.**

 **\- The riddle Anubis puts to them is a famous riddle from the Greek play 'OEdipus Rex,' wherein OEdipus has to answer the riddle of the sphinx monster to get into a town.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Stop At The Casino

written 7/11/2018 – 8/1/2018

published 10/8/2018

Word Count: 1,972

* * *

 _Say it once, say it twice, take a chance and roll the dice_

 _Ride with the moon in the dead of night_

* * *

The layout of the town was easily understood, with broad roads and dingy back alleys that wound between the German gothic buildings. Little shops lined the sides of the streets, with living quarters on the second story above. Eerily dead plants climbed up the sides of the buildings, digging into the stone masonry. All the lights were out, as though no one was home, despite the concept of a town curfew suggesting otherwise.

Marik was quick to pull his friends into the shadows between the buildings, knowing from experience that such locations could sometimes harbor temporary safety from watchful eyes. And, as accustomed to feeling unsafe as he was, Marik was beginning to grow tired of this world and the constant need to look over his own shoulder every goddamn second he was here. The lack of sleep he was experiencing didn't help matters, either.

"Do you think they'll get us in here?" Yugi asked, biting anxiously at his lower lip. "The 'Knights of Fright,' I mean."

"I don't know. I didn't get the feeling that the gatekeeper was going to reopen the gate any time soon, but..." Marik frowned, scowling at the ground. "I don't know."

Searching for some sort of respite, he tugged Yugi's sleeve, pulling the other two in step behind him as he moved further into the small space of the alley. The Knights of Fright didn't have wings, so an attack from the air wasn't likely, and they were pretty big, probably too big to fit anywhere in the town aside from the main roads. That didn't mean there wouldn't be any forms of danger in these alleys and side streets, but _that_ wouldn't be one of them.

The biggest drawback to hiding in a back alley was that they could barely see the sky anywhere, preventing them from keeping tabs on that dark spot that the doll-woman Adina had pointed out to them. And at the rate it had been closing earlier, Marik had the distinct feeling that it would be completely closed off before too long. Hopefully they could find some form of transportation and make it through the opening before they became trapped permanently.

But, it was quiet for a moment, hidden between the buildings. The only sounds that reached Marik's ears was the low hum of the wind and the chittering of rats. Even the weathered breathing of his and the others' began to even out, now that they were no longer running, and they began to breathe at a more relaxed pace.

Yugi exhaled before speaking for the first time in a few minutes, whispering quietly. "I hope they don't find us."

"Hope who doesn't find ya?"

The trio all jumped a little bit in fright, their eyes growing wide and swiveling in their sockets, searching for the unknown owner of the voice. Marik tensed, turning his entire body to meet the newcomer; he was getting tired, but he would still fight a monster with his bare hands if it came to that.

There were several sets of eyes peering out at them from the darkness. The first set moved forward, revealing the face and body attached to them. This new creature resembled a man, enough so that Marik briefly wondered if it was another human, with shaggy blonde hair tied back in a bandana.

"You guys got a problem?" the... _man?_... asked them, mouth curling into some kind of a smirk. "Maybe you should let ol' Bandit Keith take care o' you."

Marik really didn't like the way this guy's pupils dilated when they looked at him. It was the look a dog got when it saw a piece of meat.

"Or maybe you oughta trust Panik, eh?" Another figure appeared out of the shadows behind them. This one was tall, almost twice the height of Ryou, with dark tendrils and chains spread out from the torso in all directions, like several additional limbs that spanned a certain bubble of space around him.

"Aaw, don't go with either of these losers, little pretties," a female voice interjected from somewhere behind the man called 'Bandit Keith.' A hand pushed Keith aside, revealing the face of a beautiful woman. Her eyes looked like cat eyes, while the rest of her face was covered with scales, with cracks running through it like chipped porcelain. She was close enough that Marik could smell her, the scent of liquor and rotting flesh assaulting his nose.

She reached a hand forward, trying to touch Yugi's face. "I'm Vivian, sweetheart. But you can call me 'Vi-vi,' if you like!"

Another woman appeared just then, pushing past the others and gripping Vivian's arm, forcefully pulling her away from the humans. "You jerks need to start learning to behave yourselves. These nice boys don't want or need anything from you."

She turned her glowing, milky eyes to the humans, her face relaxing. "Don't mind these losers, boys. They've just had a few too many drinks, if you catch my drift." She turned on her heels suddenly, growling at Bandit Keith, Panik, and Vivian in an angry fashion. "You three need to go home. It's getting late, and you're scaring my customers."

Keith sneered at her, his eyes flashing strangely. "'Customers?!' What customers?!"

The new woman gestured to Marik and the others. "These customers." She flashed them a smile and a wink. "Hey, you boys want to grab some drinks and a bite to eat, right?"

"Um..." Marik wasn't sure how to respond. "Sure?"

"See?" The woman beamed at the alley creeps, green teeth contrasting with her glowing, white face. "Customers."

With that, she turned back around, gently taking hold of Ryou's hand and moving to pull him. "Come on then, no need to be shy, darlings!"

"Wait!" Marik grabbed hold of Ryou's right arm, while Yugi latched onto the left side of their friend. He tried to anchor himself and his companions as the woman began pulling them forward, her motions drawing them in as easily as a toy on a string.

She pulled them towards one of the walls that hemmed them in, and then she pulled them _through_ it.

Marik blinked as he found himself suddenly standing indoors, bright lights illuminating the area around him, temporary blinding him after being outside in the darkness for so long. Yugi and Ryou stood beside him, also blinking in the sudden change of light.

Jazz music played from speakers on the ceiling, intended to fill in the silence but barely heard over the constant buzzing of the crowd of monsters that were packed into the room. Pool tables, card tables, slot machines, and bars that promised food and drink were scattered everywhere, monsters crowded around the tables and games, yelling and talking and exchanging money.

A casino, Marik realized. The woman had brought them to a casino.

The woman smiled at them, the new light allowing for Marik to see just how yellow and rotting her teeth really were, something akin to mold speckled against her pale lips. Her long hair was a little bit frizzy and frayed, but it looked as though it had been a lovely shade of blonde at one point, and her eyes and cheeks were sunken into her face, giving them a stark, shadowed look. She was wearing high heels and a black-and-white pinstriped suit, the collar riding low and the whole thing cut in a way that accentuated the voluptuous curves of her body.

"Sorry for being so sudden, back there!" she said brightly. "You boys alright?"

"Yeah, thanks!" Yugi flashed her a smile in gratitude. "Thank you for helping us, back there."

"No problem, kiddo! Name's Mai, your host with the most! And this-" she gestured grandly to the room around them. "-is my Roadhouse Parlor!"

.

.

.

The ghostly Mai invited Marik and the others to rest at one of the tables. Deciding that they were probably safer in the casino than anywhere else for the time being, the three humans were happy enough to take up her offer, especially when she followed it with offers of food.

"Human-safe food isn't always easy to find in the Hollow World," Mai commented, pulling out a notepad on which to write orders if the males had them. "But I got a witch in the kitchen. She can probably whip up something if you're hungry."

"Really?!" Yugi perked up at the promise of food, but then he suddenly deflated. "Um, but we don't have any money or anything."

"That's not a problem, hon! Food and drinks here are free." A smirk grew across her face. "That is, so long as you play a few games."

Marik looked around at all the different games. Most of them seemed to require money to play, but a few of them looked like they didn't. "Well..."

As expected, Yugi and Ryou both perked up excitedly at the mention of 'games.' If there was anything those two liked as much as they liked food, it was games.

"Alright," Marik relented, giving their host a half-smile in spite of himself. "We don't have money to gamble, but we'll try to play a few games in exchange for food."

"Wonderful! What kind of food do you boys want?"

Marik counted off on his fingers. "Bring us three glasses of water, a salad for me, and two hamburgers for them. If you can, I mean."

"I'll see what we can do. And not all the games require money, so don't be scared to try them out!" The ghost woman gave them another grin and a wink. She took a moment to point the young men in the direction of the restrooms if they needed it, and then she flew away, her body slicing through air like a fish in the water.

Yugi and Ryou looked around them, their eyes scanning all the different games happening around them, before turning back around and grinning widely at each other in a way that made Marik very, very worried.

"Game time!" Yugi cried out excitedly. He jumped up and ran off with Ryou in tow, too quickly for Marik to stop them.

"Hey!" The blonde called after them, frowning while they ignored him. "We should stick together, guys!" Sighing heavily, Marik chose to stay in his seat, patiently waiting for the food Mai had promised them.

.

.

.

Mai's Roadhouse Parlor didn't seem like a bad place to stay, at least for a little while. The food was good, and it tasted like the food Marik and the others were used to, even if it looked a little bit off; Marik's salad was colored black where it should have been green, and Yugi's and Ryou's hamburgers had a weird texture to them, but it tasted the way it should and the three men were not about to complain about free food.

No real problems arose from the clientele. A few of the monsters were rather rude when spoken to, but no one was trying to eat the humans or anything and _that_ was the important point.

And the games were enjoyable enough. A couple of them were simple slot machines that required coins to play, and Yugi had no serious qualms about pulling pennies out from where he hid them in his sock, but a few of the games were somehow free to play. The free games worried Marik – this place was a gambling casino, and something labeled "free" in this sort of place made him very suspicious. It was like there was a hidden price tag somewhere, tucked away so players wouldn't know the cost until it was too late.

But still, everything seemed innocent enough. Maybe they'd found a respite from running for their lives.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- Lots of minor characters show up in this chapter. Bandit Keith is pretty self-explanatory, but, in case you don't know, Panik shows up in the Duelist Kingdom story arc, where he is called Panik/Yami/Shadow Duelist depending on the translation, and Vivian Wong is from the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix filler arc of the "YGO Duel Monsters" anime. (I always feel like I need more female characters, so I like to grab at Vivian and other anime-only girls whenever I can.)**

 **\- Mai's monstrous appearance is partially inspired by the titular character from "Beetlejuice" (one of my favorite movies) as well as the Oogie-Boogie Man from "the Nightmare Before Christmas," since the lyrics I chose for her (see top) make me think of Oogie-Boogie's gambling motif and also Beetlejuice's "say it once, say it twice, say it three times..." tagline.  
**

 **\- And, on that note, Mai's Roadhouse Parlor is named after BJ's Roadhouse from "Beetlejuice: the animated series."**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Things That Bite and Go Bump In The Night

written 8/2/2018 – 8/15/2018

published 10/8/2018

word count: 3,542

* * *

 _In this town we call home_

 _Everyone hails to the Pumpkin Song_

* * *

Yugi bit his lip worriedly. He'd already played a few rounds of a card game against this enormous man with blonde hair, and he'd lost every time. It was a simple enough game, one that he'd played a million times before, with an even chance of winning or losing. How could he lose four times in a row?

Ryou and Marik leaned over on either side of him, peering over his shoulders. Across from them was Yugi's opponent, a tall hulk of a man who'd introduced himself as Raphael. His own companions, Valon and Alistair, stood on either side of him. All three of the strange men had deathly white skin, large fangs, and black eyeballs with white pupils, instead of the other way around.

"Well, little human?" Raphael asked, fixing Yugi with a stony look. "Are you and your friends ready for another round?"

 _He's cheating,_ Yugi though. _He_ _ **must**_ _be cheating. There's no honorable way to play this game and win 100% of the time._

He nodded after a moment, watching carefully as the cards were shuffled again.

"You can do it, Yugi," Ryou murmured. "The odds are in your favor, now."

Yugi bit at the inside of his cheek, but said nothing.

The cards were replaced to the center of the table, and Raphael gestured to them, offering Yugi the first draw, just as he had for the last four rounds.

Yugi reached for the first card, turning it around and holding it up. "Ten of hearts."

It was Raphael's turn. "King of diamonds."

"Four of spades."

"Eight of hearts."

And so it went on, back and forth, for the rest of the game, until the stack of cards had been whittled down to nothing.

A grin grew across Yugi's face as he drew his final card. "Ace of spades."

But his grin was quickly wiped off by Raphael's final card, the words making Yugi's bones go cold for some reason. "Joker. Looks like I win again, little human. That makes it five times in a row you've lost."

"Do you know what that means, human?" The one called Valon leaned over the table, his fanged mouth pulling itself into a twisted smirk. "Five losses in a row means you _belong_ to us, now!"

"... What?!"

Marik growled, sneering in Valon's face. "What sort of trash are you spitting from your mouth, freak?!"

Marik and Valon were both forced to pull back when the ghostly owner of the casino floated up from the table between them. Mai wore an eerily pleasant smile on her face, turning to Yugi and the others in a cheerful manner. "That's how the games work here, boys. If you lose enough rounds in a row, you lose everything."

"But—But that's not right!" Yugi sputtered. "Games are meant to be fun, not meant to harm and enslave people!"

"That's all well and good, but you can't always turn a profit on 'fun.' So, to the victor goes the spoils and all that," Mai explained patiently. She reached out and tapped Yugi's nose, smiling sweetly. "And that means _you_ , hon!"

"Screw off!" Marik grabbed Yugi and yanked him out of his chair, positioning Yugi and Ryou behind him. "None of us are going to _belong_ to _anyone_ in this screwy Hollow World!"

Mai shrugged. "Sorry, hon, but them's the breaks."

Before anyone could say anything else, the two fanged individuals called Valon and Alistair vanished into the air, reappearing behind Yugi. Each one looped an arm around the human's arms, pulling them out and preventing him from fighting back, a glowing collar suddenly appearing around his neck.

"Yugi!" Ryou cried out, taking a step closer. He was harshly pushed away by Alistair, sending the albino tumbling to the ground.

"If you want your friend back..." Rapheal hovered a hand over the table, causing the cards to reassemble into a stack and shuffle themselves. His grim face never changed, his backwards white-on-black eyes boring holes into Marik's face, sizing up the tan human. "… You'll have to win a game against me."

Marik growled like an angry cat, but took the seat at the table anyway, sitting opposite of the tall monster. "Fine! If that's what it takes, I'll play your stupid game!"

Alistair and Valon both chuckled cruelly on either side of Yugi, and the human between them felt that same coldness in his bones as before.

.

.

.

Rapheal rigged the game. From his short distance away, Yugi could see it. The fanged monster could somehow control and move the cards with his mind, allowing him to easily draw the cards with a higher level than his opponent.

Yugi watched suddenly as a glowing collar appeared around Ryou's neck, his pale friend being suddenly pushed towards him, joining him and Marik where they were being held in place. The glowing collars grew, forming chains that led from the collars down to a set of glowing handcuffs that appeared from nowhere, chains growing from the handcuffs and linking the three humans together. A lead grew out of Yugi's collar, which Alistair quickly grabbed onto and pulled, almost choking the human.

"Come along then, little slaves!" Valon grinning, beckoning for the chained trio to start walking. "It's time to get you home to your new master!"

"We are no one's slaves!" Marik retorted. He was silenced when Rapheal struck the back of his head, appearing behind him.

Rapheal looked down at the humans coldly. "Know your place, _slave_."

Yugi swallowed uncomfortably as he and his friends were led outside, being dragged along by the fanged beasts. Nothing about this situation was right, or even fair!

"Thank you for the business!" Mai called out pleasantly as her doors slammed shut behind them.

Would they ever escape from this Hell they had fallen into?

.

.

.

The chained humans were led to a large building. Built of stone and towering turrets, the building couldn't seem to decide if it was a grand mansion or an opulent castle. The enormous front doors opened of their own accord, the heavy, wooden slabs moving like a mouth looking to swallow up anyone who entered it.

Inside the building was a large, spacious room, with plush carpet rugs lining the floor and colorful tapestries hanging along the walls. Small doors and staircases led out of the room in every direction, and every time Yugi turned his head it seemed as though one of the doors or an entire staircase had moved. Even the rugs on the floor and the tapestries on the wall seemed to alter their positions from time to time.

The one constant about the room was a large platform that grew from the floor, centered at the back of the large room. An enormous stone chair sat atop the platform, with a handful of people seated upon it. From the distance he was standing at, Yugi could make out a man with long, teal hair who lounged upon the throne, and three scantily clad ladies with blue hair knelt around him, leaning against his shoulders and knees and pressing adoring kisses to his skin.

"Ah." The teal-haired man arose from his seat when Yugi and the others were led into the room. His voice, although he spoke in low tones, carried well across the room, an oddly sweet sound to his words. His next words made Yugi's stomach drop through his feet. "I see my men have brought back dinner with them."

"... Yugi?" Ryou's voice whispered from beside and a little behind him. "What do you think he means by... ' _dinner_.'"

Yugi shook his head slightly, too afraid to even hazard a guess. He watched with wide eyes as the teal-haired man began walking across the raised platform, his feet barely lifting from the surface, and then began to walk straight down the side of the platform, just as easily as if he were walking on a horizontal surface and not a vertical one. When the man reached the bottom, he righted himself and began walking across the floor, soon coming to stand in front of the captive humans.

"Humans are such a rare delicacy," the man remarked in that silky tone of his. He brought a hand up to rest against Yugi's cheek, the long nails and ice-cold fingerpads sending shivers up the young man's spine. "Pray tell, where did you find these little morsels?"

"We found them at the Roadhouse Parlor, Lord Dartz," Rapheal explained. "They were playing games."

Alistair nodded. "They must have fallen down from the Surface World earlier this evening!"

"Good." The man called 'Lord Dartz' licked his lips. "I like my food to be as fresh as possible."

Not a sound had been heard out of Marik since he'd been struck to the head earlier, but the way Dartz was looking at the three of them and touching Yugi's face seemed to break him of his quiet spell.

"Get your filthy hands off of him!" Marik yelled, sneering at the teal-haired man. "I don't know what sort of creature you are and I don't really care, but if you lay another finger on either of my friends, I'll-"

"You'll do what, _boy_?" Dartz stood up to his full height, making him suddenly appear both very tall and very intimidating. He frowned, his lips pulling back in a snarl, revealing the large fangs in his mouth. "Perhaps you should have a care of what sort of creature you offend, for I am the lord of the vampires, and I could easily drain you dry and snap your neck before you ever knew what happened."

To his credit, Marik didn't back down. The tan human drew himself up to his own full height – which was significantly shorter than the vampire lord in front of him – and moved to position himself in front of Yugi and Ryou, meeting Dartz's gaze without so much as flinching.

"You are a brave mortal," the vampire lord commended. He wrapped a hand firmly around Marik's neck, not giving the human an inch to fight back. "Albeit a rather foolish one."

Before Yugi knew what was happening, Dartz had leaned closer and forced Marik's head back, the vampire's teeth sinking deeply into the tan human's neck. Marik let out a cry and struggled for a moment before going completely limp.

"W-what's happening?!" Yugi asked, unable to keep quiet. "What's happening to Marik?"

To his own surprise, Valon answered, suddenly appearing beside him and grinning down at him. "A vampire's teeth are venomous. Your friend won't be able to move on his own for quite awhile!"

Yugi's stomach churned as Dartz pulled away, Marik's blood dripping from his lips. The vampire lord released Marik, allowing the bleeding human to slump to the floor, landing hard against the stone.

Darts licked the blood from his lips as he turned back to look at Yugi and Ryou. "Well, that was a delicious appetizer..." He drew himself back to his full height, his shoulders rolling back as something akin to large, black wings grew from his back. The three blue-haired females jumped down from the platform, landing in a triangular pattern and surrounding the humans.

The vampire lord laughed aloud. "I believe now is time for the main course!"

He closed in on Yugi, bloody teeth gleaming in the dim light. Yugi shuddered and began to struggle against the chains that bound him, fighting to grab hold of Ryou's hand. He could feel Ryou trembling beside him, shaking like a leaf in the wind. The three humans had been rendered immobile, two still in chains and the third bleeding on the floor.

 _We're done for,_ Yugi realized. _We're really going to die this time._

But before any of the vampires could sink their teeth into either of the humans still standing, there was a loud pounding on the door.

Dartz pulled back a bit, openly growling as he glared in the direction of the door. "Who dares interrupt me when I'm dining?"

Rapheal frowned, but still raised his hand, gesturing in the air and causing the large, wooden doors to fly open. Behind the doors were three faces that peered in out of the darkness, hungry eyes and lolling tongues almost filling the doorway.

Yugi felt his heart begin to race, while his lungs failed him, hoping that the nightmare would go away if he didn't breathe. His hand clenched hard around Ryou's fingers in fear. _The Knights... the Knights of Fright?!_

One of the dragon's pushed his head forward, baring his teeth. "You have stolen our meal from us, little vampires. We would like it back."

"I think not, you worthless dragons," Dartz countered, returning to his full height. "This is my fortress, and once my men have brought their prey inside, they belong to me and _only_ to me!"

"Is that so?" The dragons snorted, their hot breath blasting the inhabitants of the room. "Do you really think you could defend your ill-earned prize from the Knights of Fright?"

"I've defeated the three of you before and I can do it again." The vampire lord's eyes narrowed. "Or have you already forgotten the physical deformities I gave you last time we crossed blades?"

The dragons began to convulse, their bodies writhing and twisting in upon themselves. Slowly, they began to shrink, becoming almost human in size and shape, sparkling scales still wrapped around their bodies like armor.

"We haven't forgotten," the one-eyed Timeaus said, glaring long and hard with his one good eye as he entered the fortress. Critius and Hermos followed behind him, one with a bum arm hanging at his side and the other walking with a terrible limp. "But we have had a few hundred years to grow and improve our skills. And now we've come to take back what's ours!"

The three fell into formation, almost resembling Medieval European knights, swords appearing in their hands.

"Now, my brothers!" Timeaus roared. "Now we shall have our revenge on this accursed blood-drinker and all his house!"

Dartz frowned, unimpressed. He pushed Yugi and Ryou aside, sending them crashing to the floor. "I see I'll have to teach you three another lesson." He jumped straight up into the air, his hair waving behind him like an elongated flag. "Risa sisters! My servants! With me!"

The three humans lay still on the floor as the sounds of battle erupted behind them. After a moment, Yugi struggled to a kneeling position, lifting out his hands to help Ryou up. He couldn't help but wince when he saw the bruises on his friend's pale skin, a map of where the vampires had grabbed him roughly and which part of his body he had landed on when he was pushed to the ground. As soon as Ryou was somewhat upright, Yugi turned, grasping Marik's shoulder in his shackled hands and shaking him.

"Marik? Are you awake?"

His friend's eyes fluttered open a bit, darting around as they tried to focus on his face. "... barely..." His eyelids fluttered closed again.

A doorway opened behind where the humans were clustered, several bats flying out from the pitch-black hallway that lay behind it. When Yugi turned around, a young woman was standing in the doorway, and he instinctively shrunk away from her.

The woman looked at him from where she leaned against the door. Her light brown hair was long and pulled back into braids that wrapped intricately around her head. An elaborate dress hung from her shoulders, seemingly too large for her small frame. The tips of two sharp fangs poked out from between her thin lips, indicating that she was of the same species as Dartz and the others.

The woman frowned, then lifted her hand into the air, gesturing as though she were picking something up. On the other side of him, Yugi was startled to see Marik lift into the air from where he lay, his tan friend's body floating easily through the air towards the woman.

Yugi cried out in alarm as he saw his friend move through the air. Struggling to his feet, Yugi moved to follow, running towards where the woman stood. He heard Ryou do the same behind him, a second set of pattering feet following after his own. Despite the noise, nothing could be heard above the clash of swords and the din of battle not many feet away.

"Wait!" Yugi begged as he neared the door. "Please, put our friend down! We need to stay _together_!"

The vampire woman looked at him in silence for a beat before turning away, heading down the hall where she stood, the hovering Marik following behind her. She turned back momentarily, gesturing at the two remaining humans with her free hand, causing their shackles and collars to vanish from their bodies. She made a beckoning signal with her hand, then she turned away again, melting into the shadows of the hallway, taking Marik with her.

"She wants us to follow her," Ryou whispered. He licked his dry lips uncertainly.

Yugi nodded to his friend as he, very hesitantly, took a step into the dark hallway.

There were no lights in the hallway, making the entire thing pitch-black. Yugi walked slowly in front, with Ryou following close behind. They held their hands out, holding tightly onto one another as they felt along the unseen walls. The hallway seemed to twist and turn in ways that made no sense in the dark, but eventually there was an end to it, and it opened up to the outside world again.

Yugi stared around in all directions. It looked like a courtyard of some sort, filled with dead grass and trees, and decorated with eerie statues of crying angels.

The strange woman stood in the center of the courtyard, her arms crossed over her chest. She was standing beside a stone bench, upon which she had laid Marik out to rest.

"My father's venom is very strong, I'm afraid," the woman said without turning around. Her voice sounded strangely youthful, as if she were a child who somehow looked like a grown woman. She knelt down and placed her hand on Marik's forehead. "The venom of the vampire lord courses through your friend's veins now, but he should start feeling better in an hour."

She finally turned to look at the two, and, out under the pale moon's light, Yugi could see how much younger she really was in comparison to how she'd appeared in the shadows. She was probably only a teenager, despite her rather mature dress and stance.

"I am Cris, daughter of Lord Dartz, princess of the vampires." She smiled pleasantly. "Tell me, what brings three mortals to Halloween Town?"

"Um... The 'Soul Eater' said we fell through a rift. We came to the closest town hoping to find someone who could help us return to our world, but so far we've found nothing but more trouble."

The vampire princess nodded. "I see. I'm sorry for all the trouble you must have gotten yourselves into. But I am surprised to see that you're still alive. For a small group of humans to have made it this deep into a Hollow World town – that's pretty remarkable!

"Now then," Cris' face became somber again as she continued. Raising a hand, she gestured in a direction that led away from the mansion they'd just escaped from. "If you want to leave this place, you should start heading that way. The mayor's office is in that direction, and he will surely help you find a way home, or at least keep you safe."

Ryou blinked in confusion beside Yugi. "The mayor?"

Without answering him, Cris reached down for Marik, pulling him into a standing position. "You'll have to help your friend, though. He'll get better soon, but for now he can't walk on his own."

She began to let him fall, causing Yugi and Ryou to rush their friend's sides. Each one caught him by the arm and pulled him back into an upright position, holding him there. Marik's eyes blinked open and closed a few times, glazed and groggy, making him look similar to how he did when he woke up in the morning.

"... Yugi?" The tan man's voice croaked, sounding strangely raspy and dry. He licked his chapped lips, trying to force his eyes to look straight, forcing them to focus on Yugi's face.

"We're here, Marik," came the answer. "Ryou and I. We're going to get you out of here, okay?"

Marik nodded dully. His eyes began to slip closed again.

A worried knot grew in Yugi's stomach as he wondered if Marik really _would_ get better. Cris seemed trustworthy, but so had Mai, and Yugi wasn't too keen on believing the words of a stranger anymore, regardless of how harmless they seemed to be.

He looked over at Ryou on the other side of their sagging friend. "You ready?"

"Yes."

"Good. Then let's get out of here while we can."

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- Dartz, Rapheal, Alistair/Alister/Amelda, Valon/Varon, and Cris are all from the "YGO Duel Monsters" DOMA/Waking the Dragons arc. Timeaus, Hermos, and Critius used to work for Dartz, until he was possessed by the evil magic of the Orichalcos and tried to kill them, permanently disabling each of them in different ways. I liked their canon relationship and decided to keep it for this story.**

 **\- While I wouldn't say Mai is really evil or a villain in this story, she's definitely not a friend and not an ally. (I know. I'm sad, too.)**

 **\- The Risa sisters are characters from the original YGO anime from the Toei studio (aka "Season 0" to a lot of fans). Since their characters are already really creepy, I figured it would fun to use them for this chapter.**

 **\- In canon, Cris has the body of a child and the mind of someone who's been alive for thousands of years. For this story, I decided to make her a little older but also keep that vibe around her, so she's meant to seem much older than she really is.**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Creepy Crawlers and Other Unpleasant People

written 8/16/2018 – 9/3/2018

published 10/8/2018

word count: 2,006

* * *

 _Everybody scream  
_

 _Everybody scream_

 _In our town of Halloween_

* * *

Ryou's breath was quickly becoming labored. He and Yugi had been carrying Marik for awhile now and, as good as it was to be away from those vampires again, their trek was beginning to become rather tiring.

The sky above them had grown very, very dark by this point. Even if they were still up there, those holes in the sky that were called "Rifts" could not be seen. Only blackness seemed to exist up there, aside from the waning moon that was occasionally obscured from sight by traveling clouds. This moon was different from the one Ryou was used to and had grown up watching; instead of the broad surface, marred only by a few craters, this one had shapes upon it that were so precise, they looked almost as though they had been intentionally cut. It rather looked like a skull-shaped lantern had been hung in the sky, as if the world itself was an enormous graveyard.

It may well have been just one big graveyard, for all Ryou knew. That thought into and of itself was oddly comforting, since viewing this world as something he was familiar with helped him make a little sense of everything around him. But, given that none of these things had happened to him whenever he had spent time in cemeteries as a teenager, that particular frame of reference probably wasn't a good one.

"Alright..." Yugi grunted a bit as he stopped walking suddenly. "I think we need a breather."

Ryou nodded in agreement. He and Yugi were game nerds by nature, and upper body strength wasn't exactly something either men excelled at. Carefully, they eased Marik to the ground, the two of them sitting against him. They leaned comfortably against the base of a large tree beside the path they'd been following.

This seemingly endless night was beginning to really wear on the three of them. Between the constant peril and all the walking and running they had been doing, Ryou was beginning to really wonder how long he and his friends would last.

"Where do you think our backpacks ended up?" he asked. The break from fleeing for their lives allowed them time to remember important details like that.

Marik grimaced and shook his head, some of his energy and strength returning to him at long last. "I guess they're still back at Mai's casino. She's probably thrown them out by this point."

"I hope she didn't trash them or anything!" Yugi bit his lip. "My only pictures of home and _'Jii-chan_ were in there!"

An image of Ryou's family portrait that he carried around with him flashed through his head, and he felt a sharp pang in his chest, suddenly worried for where it had ended up.

Marik sighed heavily beside him, sounding frustrated. He lifted his arms up above his head, stretching out his limbs a bit. It was nice to see that Marik was starting to feel better again. The other two had been lugging him around for what felt like half an hour, and it probably a relief to Marik himself that he wasn't completely paralyzed anymore.

Ryou frowned as he turned away, allowing his body to relax for the first time all night as he studied his surroundings. They were in an area of the town that was significantly less dense and packed than the streets they'd walked through earlier. The buildings in this area were more spread out, with spaces of dead flora and upturned soil laid out in between. Large trees filled any leftover space, their dead branches reaching up to the sky like grasping fingers. It was an undead forest, with all of the plants but none of the animals or any other expected signs of life.

It wasn't so much the world itself that unsettled Ryou. He could actually imagine himself becoming accustomed to this strange environment without too much trouble. Rather, it was the people he and his friends had met so far – if "people" was really the appropriate word to use for monsters such as that.

But as for the world itself... Ryou had mixed feelings about it.

Marik stood up beside them, shaking off the last remains of his paralysis. "Well, let's start moving again. Something tells me we shouldn't stay put around here for very long."

The other two nodded, scrambling back to their feet. The three young men moved out, continuing to walk along the path.

They hadn't been going very far before Ryou's feet gave out beneath him. He'd tripped over a tree root and fallen flat on his face. Before Marik or Yugi could move to help their friend up, Ryou felt something wrap around him from behind, a sudden squeezing and pulling sensation sending him straight up into the trees.

Too surprised to even make a sound, Ryou just hung there, limply. It felt like the branches of a tree had somehow wrapped around him, like an enormous hand, its wooden digits wrapped around his neck and shoulders and torso. He shifted his eyes to look downward, greeted by the sight of Yugi and Marik standing far beneath his dangling legs, their eyes staring up in horror.

Marik turned and glared at the tree itself. "We don't have time for this! Give him back!"

To Ryou's further surprise, the tree _responded_.

A voice rumbled out of the tree, cruel laughter filling the air as it spoke. "'Give him back?' It that a joke? I don't release my victims for anyone or anything. You might as well say goodbye to your friend now and run along, unless you also want to become a decoration in the branches of Ushio the Lynching Tree!"

"'Lynching tree?!'" Ryou repeated under his breath. He swallowed, his throat slightly inhibited by how tightly he was being held. He heard Marik swear violently from the ground below.

"I am Tetsu Ushio," the tree continued, its branches creaking as they shifted around, their grip tightening around Ryou. "And anyone foolish enough to become tangled up in my roots or caught up by my branches is doomed to spend eternity in my grasp!"

"Yeah, that's why you only have _one_ victim hanging from you, isn't it?" another voice interjected. A trio of large, spider-like creatures with human faces appeared, scrambling down the trunk of the tree. They moved quickly, avoiding the tree's grasping branches with ease.

The smallest one came to rest in front of Ryou, hanging down from a cluster of threads. He grinned widely, his dark, sunken eyes twinkling from beneath stringy, black hair. He looked over Ryou with interest.

"Hey there, cutie," the spider-thing hissed, his breathe making Ryou's skin crawl. If he weren't trapped by the tree's branch, the human male would have tried to shrink away. "I think you'd look _perfect_ tied up in my web above my mantle!"

A pinecone struck the black-haired spider-thing from the ground, sending it skittering away for a moment. Glancing downward, Ryou could see Marik holding another pinecone he must have picked up from the ground, positioned to throw it if needed.

"Keep your grubby hands _OFF my FRIEND_!" Marik called up, his voice echoing loudly against the surrounding trees. Both he and Yugi were glaring up at the spider-creatures and the living trees, their faces twisted into scowls, as if they were ready to battle the eight-legged fiends and the agricultural abominations with nothing more than pinecones and their bare hands.

 _Nice to see Marik's feeling better,_ Ryou thought to himself.

"Hey!" The black-haired spider-thing seemed to be of a different opinion. He held up a spindly fist, shaking it menacingly in the air. "No one strikes Bonz Kotsuzuka like that and gets away with it!"

"Then come down here and stop us, bug boy!"

Hissing, the spider-creatures skittered down the side of the large tree, aiming straight for the spot where Marik and Yugi stood. Ryou couldn't make much of what was happening from his vantage point. He struggled to look down, trying to catch sight of his friends, hoping against hope that they were alright. To his relief and horror, he soon spotted the two of them. They were running away. Away from the trees. Away from the spiders.

… Away from _him_.

"YUGI!" He called out, straining his voice. "Don't leave me, _please_!"

"RYOU!" came the equally desperate answer. Yugi couldn't get any other words out before he was suddenly picked up and carried away by Marik, the tall, tan male pausing just long enough to call up his own message to Ryou.

"I'm sorry, Ryou," Marik began. He sounded terribly unhappy, and even a little scared. More than he'd sounded at any other point during the night. "But I think you're safer in that tree than you are on the ground with us. I promise, we'll come back for you as soon as we can."

Then, almost immediately, they were gone. Then the spider-creatures were gone. And then, there was silence. Not a sound in the area, aside from the creaking of wood as the trees shifted, readjusting themselves, and the loud drumming of Ryou's heartbeat in his ears.

.

.

.

It felt like hours were passing. It was probably only minutes, but it felt like a short eternity.

Ryou's eyes drooped. They stung, as though he were going to cry, but he blinked the tears away. He refused to cry. He refused to show that sort of weakness to anyone. Even to himself.

The silence around him broke into a low grinding sound, the noise making Ryou nearly jump out of his skin from surprise. The sound was emanating from the tree itself, and Ryou quickly began to realize what it was – the tree was snoring. The tree had fallen asleep!

Curiously, he began to pull on one of the branches wrapped around him, gently easing it away from his body. Before long, the young man had managed to disentangle himself, dropping to the ground and reclaiming his freedom.

Or, more accurately, he landed flat on his back. But he was free from the grasp of the living lynching tree and that's what mattered in that moment. Climbing wearily to his feet, the young man began to stumble in the direction he'd last seen Yugi and Marik run off in. He wrapped his arms tight around himself, trying desperately to keep warm, and he tread lightly, being careful not to disturb the slumber of the trees around him, and being doubly careful not to trip over any more roots.

It was a slow walk, only made slower by how cold and tired Ryou was already. He'd been running for his life for almost five hours now, and he didn't know how much more his heart or his body could take it.

He was weak. Physically weak. His frail heart fluttered like a startled butterfly inside his thin ribcage, a soft pattering beneath his pale skin. And with every passing hour, he worried more and more that the fluttering may stop altogether.

The young man had only just passed through the last remaining trees, preparing to leave the forest behind him as he sought to rejoin with his two companions, when he heard a footfall behind him. Spinning around on his heel, Ryou tried to get a good look at his assailant.

"Your heartbeat's so _loud_ , little human," a male voice whispered. "I can almost _feel_ it from here."

Hands grabbed ahold of Ryou – one, two, three, oh god, how many hands were there? – as a an open, gaping mouth descended toward him. Sharp teeth bit down into his forearm, stinging him as venom was injected into him.

He began to collapse, his vision swirling and becoming blurry. His many armed attacker lifted him up, cradling him in a strangely caring manner.

"This should help you relax," the strange voice whispered into his ear. "Goodnight, sleep tight... _please, let the bedbugs bite_."

It was the last thing Ryou heard for a few hours.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- I played around with different ideas for what sort of monster Bonz/Ghost Kotsuzuka, Sid/Takaido, and Zygor/Satake could be. A much earlier version of the story featured them as zombies who jumped out of trash cans to attack the main trio, while another idea was to have them as undead bodies already hanging from the lynching tree. In the end, I chose to make them spiders.**

 **\- Oh no, somebody got Ryou! D-: Who could it be?! What kind of fiend would kidnap a wounded creampuff?!  
**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Wind Through Your Hair and Shadows On the Moon

written 9/3/2018 – 9/15/2018

published 10/8/2018

word count: 2,389

* * *

 _I am the Clown with the tearaway face – here in a flash and gone without a trace_

 _I am the Who when you call 'who's there?'_

 _I am the Wind blowing through your hair_

 _I am the Shadow on the Moon at night – filling your dreams to the brim with fright_

* * *

"I can't believe you made me leave Ryou like that!"

Marik closed his eyes as he lifted his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. He wasn't exactly happy with the snap decision he'd made either, but it was too late to take back now. "Yugi, I already told you, the tree seemed like the safest place for Ryou for the time being."

"He'd be safer with us!"

"You don't know that!"

The pair had made it out of the forest and were once more in a highly developed part of town. Small buildings squeezed next to each other or looked as though they'd been crammed right on top of one another, the neighborhood building up instead of out. Wide streets and cobblestone lanes ran between the towering buildings, and a large fountain could be seen in the center of a road junction, with vile, black water pumping through to the top and bubbling down into the basin.

Marik and Yugi kept to the very edge of the road, trying hard to avoid any further peril. They walked along an iron fence that lined one side of the road. The fence seemed to encase some sort of children's play area, as even in the dim light they could make out the recognizable shapes of slides and a swingset.

"... We should have done more to help him," Yugi grumbled. As expected, he was not taking the loss of his best friend well at all.

"There was nothing we could do at the time. But we're going to get help for him."

Yugi gave Marik an unreadable expression. "If we get back and anything bad has happened to Ryou, I'm taking it personally out of your hide."

Something about the way he said that made Marik even more nervous than the denizens of this Hollow World made him. "Understood."

Marik sighed to himself as he continued to take in the new surroundings. He rubbed at his neck in discomfort, his fingers running over the bumps left over from where he'd been bitten by that vampire. He wondered briefly how noticeable the bite was, or if it would become infected or anything. And if it did, what would he do about it? It's not like vampire bites were exactly an injury he had to deal with on a regular basis or anything.

The sudden sounds of footfalls and wings beating in the air started somewhere nearby. The new sounds made the two humans stand up straight and take notice, turning their heads around in search of where the noise was coming from.

"It's getting closer," Marik whispered. Taking a sharp right, he moved into the little playground they were walking beside, his eyes searching over the large play equipment for potential hiding spots. Yugi fell in step behind him, just as eager as he was to get away from any incoming threat. The two of them crawled through the opening of a plastic climbing structure, deciding to worry more about Ryou later and themselves now.

The air was still and quiet for a moment, a soft breeze moving a few leaves along the ground. Marik held his breath, straining his ears to listen as everything fell still, no movement or sound catching his attention.

A beat of silence passed, and then another. Just as Marik started to poke his head out from his hiding spot, wondering if he and Yugi really were in a safe, secure location, something landed hard on the ground in front of him, causing him to shrink back against himself.

It was another monster of some sort that had landed in front of him. Something with a rocky exterior and wings, with flowering vines growing over its body. It reminded Marik of images he'd seen of gargoyle statues, like the kind that might decorate old European cathedrals.

The figure began walking across the playground area, its head swiveling in various directions. The monster was clearly looking for something as it walked along, the graceful motion of its long legs and wing-like appendages making it look more like it was dancing than properly walking. A breeze whipped around the creature, causing its brown hair to bob in the wind, loose petals flying from the flowering vine that grew from the creature, and instead flying all around it in a shower of blossoms.

The creature turned its head to the side, mossy eyelashes batting against a demure face as it met eyes with another shadowy figure. "Otogi, are you _really sure_ you saw Jou's mask around here somewhere? I don't see it anywhere."

"Positive, Anzu!" a second voice hissed. A black figure stepped out of the shadows themselves, with glowing cat eyes that pierced the darkness. This creature was holding a small animal of some kind in its hands, cradling it like a beloved pet. "At least, I know my rats saw it around here."

A third creature showed up just then, wheeling in like a child on roller skates. It looked like a clown, but, where a person's face should have been, instead there was a blank expansion of bone white skin. Everything about it made Marik's skin crawl, filling him with terror and revulsion.

This third creature was moving its hands wildly, flapping and making a variety of strange gestures. At first, they looked like random motions to Marik. But, as they continued, he could see that there was some of logic to them, as if they meant something. Like a form of sign language, he realized.

"We're working on it, Jou," the gargoyle answered patiently. "Otogi says his rats saw your mask nearby."

The shadowy creature nodded, kneeling down on the ground and carefully setting a rat down on the dead grass. "At least, they know it's a clown mask of some sort. I have to assume it's yours, since there's only so many Faceless Clowns in town."

Marik turned to look at Yugi, his lips moving to silently mouth words. _"... 'Faceless Clown?'"_

Yugi frowned, his eyes darting to stare pointedly at an object on the ground beside them. It was disk-shaped, the object left in the rotting dirt underneath the children's play structure, with blue button eyes and a wide smile and two rosy cheeks that framed a round, red nose.

" _Clown mask,"_ Yugi mouthed silently, the words making Marik's blood grow cold.

The two young men watched nervously as the monster's pet rat scrambled into their hiding place. The animal gave the two humans a curious sniff, then squeaked loudly in the direction of the mask. Holding their breath, Marik and Yugi stared as an inky black tendril began crawling through the space along the ground, moving as though it were following the rat. When the tendril reached the mask, it made a sort of grabbing motion and redacted itself, taking the mask and the rat with it.

Just as Marik thought it was safe enough to breathe again, two large shadowy tendrils burst in beside him, grabbing tightly onto both Yugi and himself, dragging the two of them out from their hiding place. Marik heard Yugi scream as they both flew through the air, suddenly stopping short in a way that gave him whiplash, filling his eyes with stars for a moment.

Shaking his head, Marik forced his eyes to work again. He found himself hanging by the back of his shirt, the collar held firmly in the tendril-like appendage of the cat-eyed shadow creature. Yugi hung beside him in a similar state.

The shadow creature grinned up at them from the ground, its sharp teeth a sparkling white against its black face. The rat sat on the creature's shoulder, proudly holding the clown mask between its teeth.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here!" The shadow creature's grin widened as it spoke. The gargoyle and clown monsters moved to stand on either side of their companion, the gargoyle staring up at the captured humans with interest. "I don't think I've ever seen two mortals on this side of town, before. Have you, Anzu?"

"Nope." The gargoyle shook her head. She turned to the third member of their party. "What about you, Jou?"

On the other side of the shadow creature, the clown was clumsily retrieving the mask from between the rat's teeth, earning a few bites and a squeak in the process. As soon as the monster had the mask, however, the flat object pressed itself against the monster's blank head, melting and reforming against him. It was like the rubbery mask had simply _become_ the monster's face, and it looked as if it had always been there.

The clown twisted its face, smiling widely as it looked at the humans in front of it. "Nah, me either. Then again, the only mortal I ever seen is the lady who takes care of my sister."

"These guys must be new, then," came a fourth voice out of nowhere. Marik saw Yugi jump in midair, and they both turned to stare at the newcomer. Some sort of weird fish-man had appeared behind them, seemingly from nowhere, all staring eyes and gaping gills and dripping wet footprints.

An ear-piercing shriek erupted out of Yugi, loud enough and sudden enough to make Marik feel like passing out again.

.

.

.

"We're sorry for scaring you," the gargoyle repeated herself. She been quick to make her companions give the two humans some personal space, pulling the three other monsters a few feet away. She waited patiently for Marik and Yugi to collect themselves, flapping her wings in a frantic, apologetic manner.

"Um, let's start over." The gargoyle stood up to her full height, smiling demurely as she towered above Yugi, her face almost reaching Marik's. Brown hair framed her face, a stark contrast to her stone body. Moss grew around her eyes and lips, almost like natural makeup, and a flowering vine grew up and around her entire body, the roots growing from small cracks along her rocky exterior. She was almost human in shape, with a torso and a head and all the right facial features and two legs, but she had large leathery wings that grew from her shoulders, right where two arms should have been. Even so, she moved with all the grace of a skilled ballet dancer, a breeze of wind dancing around her as she walked.

"I'm Anzu," she introduced herself, smiling shyly. "The Wind you feel in the late evening."

Her breeze flew around Marik and Yugi, enveloping the two humans like a hug as it showered blossoms from her vine around them. Yugi grinned in delight. Marik frowned as he reached up to pick flower petals from his hair.

The fish creature was next, grinning as he waved a webbed hand at the pair. His mouth was full of piranha teeth, the sharp protrusions looking as though they grew in rows, giving his mouth an eerie clustered look. Large gills flapped open and closed uselessly on either side of his neck, rivets of water streaming out of them and down his already wet body, pooling in a puddle of murky liquid at his feet. His skin was scaly, like a fish, but almost human in color, the dull brown rotting away in some areas to reveal red, sinewy muscle or pale bones. He most looked like a zombie fish of some kind, Marik eventually decided.

"I'm Honda the Who," the fish-man said, his teeth clicking together when he talked. "The sounds you hear when you think you're alone."

"And I am Otogi," said the shadow-person beside him. Cat eyes twinkled merrily out from the black silhouette, the only facial feature that could be seen from the otherwise humanoid shape. "The Moon's Shadow."

Marik frowned. "'Moon's Shadow?' What does _that_ mean?"

"That's just the name I'm called. It doesn't really mean anything."

"And I'm Jounouchi, the Faceless Clown!" the clown interrupted. His mask stretched and smiled, looking more like a natural face than a mask he'd just put on. He did a cartwheel and pulled a flower out of his ear, offering it to Yugi with a friendly wink. "But please, don't be shy. I'm _faceless_ , not _heartless_!"

Yugi laughed shyly, politely declining the flower. "In that case, it's nice to meet you all. I'm Yugi, and this is Marik. Ah hah, sorry for screaming earlier."

"No, no, don't worry about it!" The gargoyle began flapping her wings again. "We're sorry we scared you like that. We really weren't trying to."

"But we've never seen people from the Surface World before!" The clown tilted his head, studying the humans in an exaggerated fashion. "How did you get here? How long have you been here?"

Choosing not to answer the questions being shot at them, Marik turned on his heel, moving as though to begin walking. "This is all very good and well, but, if it's all the same to you, we need to go rescue our friend. We kind of left him hanging back there in the woods, and we need to go get him-" A sharp pain exploded in the side of his neck, blossoming out from where the vampire had bit him earlier. "-down..."

Marik collapsed to the ground, his body giving out underneath him. It felt like his blood was on fire. He could feel his limbs twitching, the muscles spasming out of his control, and more than anything else he wanted to scream.

"Easy there, pal," the fish-person said, kneeling down beside him. "You're not going anywhere just yet. Not on your own, anyway."

"Looks like your friend was bit by something." The shadow-person turned to Yugi. "You know by what?"

"He was bit by the vampire lord."

The fish-person swore, scrambling to his feet and hoisting Marik up. "We need to take him to Pegasus, then. Pegasus will have the antidote."

"We can go get your other friend later," the clown told Yugi, interrupting him before he could speak. "If you lost him in the Hanging Forest, there's only so much that can happen to him. But right now, your buddy needs some help."

The gargoyle jumped up and down in place as she nodded. "Let's go, then! To the office of the mayor of Halloween Town!"

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- I knew what sort of monster I wanted to style Jounouchi after (Killer Clown, so think Pennywise from "It"), but I wasn't sure about the others. I ended up randomly generating different types of monsters, and Anzu got Gargoyle/Plant Monster, Honda got Zombie/Fishman, and Otogi got Werecat/Shadow. Everything else fell into place after that.**

 **\- Anzu doesn't have proper arms, or hands at all. Her arms turn into wings at the elbow. But, if she had to pick something up or turn a doorknob, she can use the plant vines that grow out of her like extended limbs.**

 **\- Jounouchi and other Faceless Clowns are born without faces. Instead, they wear special masks that attach to their heads - so long as they're wearing it, the mask acts as though it is the clown's natural face. But since it is just a mask, it can still be lost or broken, rendering the clown permanently deformed and disabled, or at least until they can find a new mask.**

 **\- Otogi has a lot of pet rats that he frequently carries around inside his pockets. No real reason - I just thought it would be kinda cute.**

 **\- Honda can breathe both water and air, since he is as much man as he is fish. When he's underwater, his lungs/gills expel air bubbles as he exhales, and when he's on land they expel water.**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: the Mayor's Office

written 9/15/2018 – 9/21/2018

published 10/8/2018

word count: 2,323

* * *

 _In this town – don't we love it now?_

 _Everybody's waiting for the next surprise!_

* * *

They weren't very far from the mayor's office, as it turned out. In fact, if Yugi and Marik had only walked about a block further down, they would have found it.

The mayor's office was small, squeezed right between an apothecary and a library, the brick office indicated by little more than the front door and a small sign, both painted blue with the word 'MAYOR' in bold, black lettering.

"And the mayor will really help us?" Yugi asked. It wasn't that he meant to be rude to their newfound friends or anything, but he was having a hard time being sure of who to trust and who not to trust.

Jou smiled widely as he glided alongside Yugi; the clown's feet were shaped like wheels, and he skated more than actually walked. "Don't worry about it. Pegasus is a great guy! Smart and all that! He'll know what to do."

"Pegasus!" Otogi pounded on the door when they reached it, creating a racket with his many limbs. "Open up! We have visitors for you!"

The lights flickered on inside the building, the door throwing itself open, hitting Otogi square in the face and sending him sprawling to the dirt. A very tall man stood in the doorway, long arms crossed over his chest. The man scowled out at the crowd from behind his curtain of silvery hair, his lips sneering, his eyes glinting coldly.

" _Have you youngsters any idea what time it is?"_ The man asked. His voice was cold, and hearing it sent chills up Yugi's spine. _"It's late, and I'm busy, and I don't have time for your silly jokes."_

"But, Mr. Pegasus-!" Anzu wailed, hopping in place. She flapped her wings, gesturing frantically between Yugi and Marik, the latter of the two resting in Honda's arms, unconscious. "We found these lost mortals!"

The man paused, his cold eyes darting between the two humans. His head twisted upon itself, spinning around on his neck like a screw, and then there was a second face staring out at the group. This second face looked curious and amused, and he was quick to open the door a little further.

"Bring them in here," the man said. His voice had changed as well as his face, and this second voice sounded warm and inviting. "Quickly, now! Before someone else sees!"

Before Yugi could protest, he was rushed into the office, the small space, quickly becoming cramped. Yugi yelped a bit as he was suddenly pushed, the two-faced mayor reaching out and shoving him into a chair, forcing him to sit. At the mayor's instructions, Marik was laid out on a small couch, the wound on his neck exposed.

The mayor vanished under his desk for a moment, popping back up with a vial in hand. The vial was poured down Marik's throat before Yugi could even get a good look at it, and then a first-aid kit had appeared just as quickly. Before Yugi could really see what was happening, the mayor took a step back. Marik's wound had been cleaned and carefully bandaged.

Yugi opened his mouth, full of questions, but was silenced by a stern look from the mayor.

"We can talk after your friend wakes up again." There was a strange twinkle in the man's eye, like a faraway star. "It should only take a few minutes."

.

.

.

It wasn't long before Marik had woken up again. His body was sore in some areas, but he seemed none the worse for wear.

Yugi was glad for that. He couldn't imagine losing both of his friends in the same night.

"Vampire venom is a tricky toxin," the mayor explained. The two-faced man was sitting at his desk, his tall body hunched over as though it were too large for his furniture; he seemed to be busying himself with paperwork of some kind, shuffling pieces of paper around his desk and occasionally signing one or two. He looked up from his work, using one long finger to push aside his curtain of hair. "It likes to lull the bite victim into a false sense of security before it completely drains the victim of their energy, causing the victim to feel as though he is being consumed from the inside out."

Marik grimaced, weakly raising a hand to touch his bandaged wound. "You're telling me?"

The man smiled wryly at the humans. "I do beg your pardon, however. I don't believe we've properly met. My name is Pegasus J. Crawford, of the monster type called 'the Janus.'"

"What does that mean?" Yugi asked. "'Monster type' and 'Janus?'"

It was Jou who answered his first question, the clown monster having settled into a tight ball on the floor. Honda and Otogi sat on either side of him, their legs crossed in the small space, while Anzu stood behind them, pressed uncomfortably against the wall.

"There are difference types of monsters, with similarities running between relatives." He gestured to his mask, grinning. "I'm a Faceless Clown, same as my folks, in the same way Otogi is a Moon's Shadow. It's the same way you two are both humans-" He jerked his thumb between Yugi and Marik. "-but you don't really look that much alike."

"So, it's an ethnicity thing, then?"

The mayor nodded. "The Janus are a type of monster with dual faces, one on each side of their head," he explained. "We are the ones who stand in open doorways and stare into dark rooms. Our eyes never blink, and our gaze fills the recipient with dread."

The tall man leaned back in his chair, resting his long legs on his desk, his long arms wrapping comfortably behind his head. "Now then, I believe it's your turn. Tell us, humans – what are you doing in our little Halloween Town?"

"We fell to your world through a 'rift' of some sort," Marik began. "The two of us and our friend, Ryou. We came to this town looking for help in getting back to our world, or at least in escaping from the Knights of Fright."

"The Knights of Fright?" Pegasus blinked, sitting up straight again. His head turned around, his second face staring at the two humans in surprise. "You escaped from the dragons themselves?"

"Yes. We've also escaped from the vampire lord Dartz, lost our belongings at Mai's Roadhouse Parlor, and the two of us made it through a forest of living trees and spider-creatures." Marik's frown deepened. "We had to leave our friend in the forest, though."

The mayor gave them both an unreadable look for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was carefully neutral. "It sounds as though you've had a very long, very taxing evening."

"It's not over yet!" Yugi stood up, ignoring the stinging that spread through his legs; he wasn't used to constantly running without proper rest, and his muscles were protesting against their extensive use. "We still need to go back and rescue Ryou!"

"Would that really be wise, little human?"

Yugi turned to the monstrous mayor, glaring fiercely at the tall figure, meeting his gaze evenly. It had been a long night, and Yugi was tired, and he was scared, and he was mad. The mayor's eyes filled him with a haunted feeling of terror and unending fear, but it did little to quell his desire to see his friend safe again, and his anger over having to leave him in the first place.

"Ryou and I, we've already lost everyone else." His amethyst eyes sparked with determination. "And whoever we didn't lose, they abandoned us. We don't abandon each other. No matter what the cost."

To his surprise, the mayor's head flipped around again, revealing a broad smile. "Ryou sounds like a lucky person to have you as a friend."

"I'm lucky to have _him_."

The mayor nodded as he picked up the phone from his desk. He dialed a number, then spoke into the device after a beat of silence. "Kaiba, it's Crawford. Bring the kids, and meet me at the Hanging Forest. We have a missing person to find."

.

.

.

The mayor had a hearse that he drove. The backseat was just big enough for Yugi and Marik to squeeze in, along with Jou, Anzu, and Honda, while Otogi sat in the front seat alongside Pegasus.

The drive back to the Hanging Forest was shorter than expected. Yugi wasn't sure if it was just because he and Marik had been walking or if the distance really was as long as he'd thought it was, but the drive was significantly faster and more direct. It also helped that Pegasus clearly knew where they were going, something he had that the lost humans didn't.

There was a tall figure standing at the edge of the forest, arms crossed over his chest. He turned to look at the hearse as it approached, clearly waiting for them.

"You're late," the figure called as the hearse slowed to a stop. He glared at Pegasus, and his voice was rude, but as intimidating as the strange man was, Pegasus only laughed out loud.

"I believe _I_ called _you_ here, Kaiba," the two-faced mayor chuckled as he climbed out of the vehicle. He held the door open, beckoning for the passengers to get out as well. Otogi scrambled out first, sidling up to stand next to the mayor; something about his behavior reminded Yugi of a loyal pet, and it made him wonder about the nature of his new friends' relationship.

Kaiba, as it turned out, was a tall, scary monstrous man with dark hair and pale skin. His skin was pale enough and thin enough, Yugi could see the outline of the monster's skeleton just beneath the exterior, making him look a bit like a plastic skeleton decoration.

"This is my associate, Seto Kaiba," Pegasus explained. "He and his team are good at handling matters of security. Even when they've been summoned out of bed in the middle of the night."

Kaiba narrowed his eyes, frowning severely at Yugi and Marik. "Where did they come from, anyway?"

"From the Surface World, of course. Really, Kaiba, you're such a dingbat sometimes."

Before the tall skeletal man could retort, three smaller figures appeared beside him, peeking out from around him, like small children who had been hiding behind him the entire time. Each of the three figures wore an elaborate mask, with half-eaten pieces of candy sticking out of their mouths. They looked a bit like the average Halloween trick-or-treater, but something about them seemed familiar.

"YOU!" Marik cried out suddenly. He pointed aggressively at the three childish creatures. "You're the reason we're here in the first place!"

The small figure wearing the witch's hat pulled a lollipop out of her mouth, sticking her tongue out at Marik. "It's not our fault! We didn't _ask_ you idiots to follow us down here or nothing!"

"What?" A look of understanding crossed Kaiba's face. He looked down at the other two figures – a horned devil and another skeleton – with a questioning look. "These were the humans who accosted you earlier?"

"They chased us back through the Rift, big brother!"

"We didn't _chase anyone_!"

"QUIET!" The sudden outburst made them all turn back to look at Pegasus, the mayor's head having turned around to scowl at them all. Growling deep in his throat, Pegasus pinched the bridge of his nose, frowning severely.

"Listen," he began. "Three mortals made their way into Halloween Town. How they got here is unimportant. What matters is that one is missing, and he was last seen here in the Hanging Forest. And you know we can't allow mortals to run around our world unchecked anymore than we can in their world. Now..."

He turned his head back around, smiling pleasantly at the crowd. His eyes glinted cruelly, and his voice chilled Yugi down to the very core of his bones. _"Find him!"_

Yugi and Marik both fell back, backing away from the mayor in fear. Anzu, Jou, and Honda all did the same, Anzu spreading her wings out in a defensive manner. Even Kaiba looked a little rattled and uncomfortable, while the three smaller monsters that were with him all shrieked and ducked behind him, vanishing from view once more.

"Hey! You heard the mayor!" Kaiba moved aside, forcing the other three back out of their hiding place. He pointed out into the forest, directing the children.

"Rebecca, you go right." The little witch nodded, scampering off.

"Leon, you take the left." The horned devil nodded, turning on his heels and vanishing.

"Mokuba, you're with me." And with that, the two skeletal figures walked straight into the woods, quickly disappearing from sight.

A minute crawled past. Then two. Then three. Yugi wanted to go into the woods to search for Ryou himself, but every time he made a move to do so, Pegasus would patiently grab hold of him and tug him back.

"Give them five minutes," the monstrous mayor said. His voice was soft and calming now, and it was eerily relaxing to listen to. "If your friend is still here, they'll find him."

But, the five minute mark came and went. Then six. Then seven.

When ten minutes had passed, Kaiba returned, the three smaller monsters at his heels. They didn't have anyone else with them.

Kaiba looked at Pegasus for a moment, shaking his head from side to side.

"Sorry." The smaller skeleton beside him looked up at Yugi and Marik, removing his mask and gazing at them unhappily. "There's no sign of another mortal anywhere."

Yugi felt his heart lurch in his chest, and, for the first time since his grandfather's funeral, he felt like crying.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- While Pegasus's monstrous appearance is based off of the Mayor from "the Nightmare Before Christmas," his name is taken from Janus, the Roman god of open doors and new beginnings. Janus is often depicted as having two faces, one on each side of his head, so that's where that idea came from.**

 **\- Rebecca Hopkins/Hawkins and Leon von Schroeder are anime-only characters. Rebecca features in a few different story arcs, while Leon only shows up in the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix arc.**

 **\- Rebecca, Leon, and Mokuba are basically stand-ins for Lock, Shock, and Barrel. Seto, on the other hand, isn't really inspired by any NBC characters. He's just also a skeleton so he and Mokuba match.**

 **\- Having said that, Seto totally lives in a tree house (like Lock, Shock, and Barrel live in) with these three kids that he's raising, and if you think he's not you're lying to yourself.**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Nightmares and Bug Bites

written 9/21/2018 – 9/27/2018

published 10/8/2018

2,947 words

* * *

 _I am the one hiding under your bed_

 _Teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red_

* * *

Ryou's head was pounding when he finally woke up. But he was some place soft and warm, and his first impulse was to sink back into the comfortable bed beneath him and allow the warm blankets to lull him back to sleep.

But then he remembered where he was and what had happened, and he bolted up into a sitting position.

The first thing he noticed, looking down at himself, was his bare feet and his missing shirt and jacket. Most of his outer garments had been removed, leaving him in his undershirt and jeans. There were bandages wrapped over various scrapes and cuts he'd received during the night, and he wondered who had doctored him up.

He was in a dimly lit room of some sort, the layout reminding him of the pictures he'd seen of studio apartments. The bed he rested on took up the middle of the room, while a couch and a kitchen and dining area were on either side of him. Containers of bandages and salves sat open on the table, presumably what had been used on his injuries. Ryou could also see the rest of his clothes and shoes, piled in a heap on one of the chairs.

And maybe more prominently was the other occupant in the room – a large beetle-shaped person who sat on the couch, arms and legs all crossed comfortably over each other. It looked a bit like a human in some ways, but it must have been nearly six feet tall, with six arms, wings on its back, and antennae on its head. It appeared to be asleep, its six eyes closed tightly, and its antennae drooping from inactivity.

Hesitantly, Ryou pushed back the blankets that were bundled around him, moving to stand up. Almost immediately, he missed the warmth of the bed, his body shivering as soon as the cold air touched him. His bare foot hit the cold, wooden floor beneath him, and he felt the floor shift ever so slightly as it creaked under his weight.

In a flash, the albino was thrown back onto the bed, a heavy weight landing on top of him. That one creaking floorboard had woken up the beetle man, causing him to fly at Ryou, easily pinning the smaller male back to the bed.

"Where do you think you're going, little human?" the beetle man asked, glaring down at Ryou in a way that filled him with terror. "I brought you back here to keep you safe. You'll only get in more trouble if you leave."

Ryou shuddered and stared up at the six-eyed creature above him. He blinked, his confusion growing as well as his fear. " _You_ brought me here?"

"Yes." The beetle-creature grinned. He sat back a bit, moving onto the bed to sit beside Ryou. "I brought you home with me and tended to your injuries. Your skin is very fragile, little human – it wounds easily."

"... True enough." Ryou frowned, turning away from the monstrous man beside him. He looked down at his arm, noting the salve and bandages wrapped over the place where he had been bitten. "Why did you bite me? Are you like the vampires?"

The beetle-creature scoffed. "Nah. I'm not like those worthless bloodsuckers. But my bite holds a toxin, a kind of sedative. I thought your heart was going to jump out of your chest, and biting you and putting you to sleep was the only way I could think to help you."

"..." The human stared up at the monster. "Why did you want to help me?"

"What? Don't think I'm just a monster with some goodness in my heart?"

"I haven't met any yet." Ryou drew himself up straighter, glaring up at his captor, hoping he looked more intimidating than he felt. "Everyone I've met here just wants to eat me, or hurt me in some way. And I don't believe in anyone, human or monster or otherwise, being kind enough to go so far out of their way to help a complete stranger."

"Really?" The beetle's voice sounded mocking. One of his many hands came up to touch Ryou's hair, pushing a stray lock back behind the human's ear. "No one's ever been needlessly nice to a lovely thing like you?"

As if. Aside from Yugi and Marik, no one else had ever shown even the slightest interest in Ryou's well-being. Even the people who had wanted something out of him. "No."

The beetle dropped his hand, letting the lock of Ryou's hair fall. "I'm Bakura, the Bed Bug. Want to stay with me, pretty human?"

Maybe he was afraid of what the monster would do him if he said 'no.' Or maybe some sort of instinct told him that he was safe. But no matter what it was, Ryou found himself inclined to agree.

"... Alright."

He wondered what time it was, and whether Yugi and Marik had made it out of the woods alright, and whether they were looking for him.

"Oh!" he added on afterthought, watching the Bed Bug walk over to the kitchen area, the monster's arms removing food and plates from various cabinets. He called out from the bed, "My name is Ryou, by the way!"

The beetle turned back to look at him, flashing him a quick smile. "Nice to meet you, Ryou."

.

.

.

Bakura wasn't exactly polite company. But he was nice enough, and he did his best to put together some food for Ryou to eat.

"While I do sometimes partake in food similar to what you mortals eat, it's not my primary meal source." The beetle's voice sounded almost apologetic as he opened the kitchen cupboards, rifling through the meager items inside. "I have … bread. And water."

"That's fine."

Ryou shifted in the bed a bit, wrapping one of the blankets around his shoulders as he sat up. He watched the Bed Bug's movements, curiosity overcoming his fear. "What do Bed Bugs normally eat?"

"I eat the nightmares of humans."

The human blinked in confusion, not understanding. "... How can you eat nightmares?"

"Well, when mortals sleep, their subconscious mind generates experiences for them in the form of dreams, sometimes good and sometimes not." The Bed Bug turned back around, grinning widely as he moved to lean over Ryou, forcing the human back onto the bed. His many arms came down on every side of the human like a cage, and his many eyes and hungry mouth loomed overhead. "I feed off of the energy created in their body from their bad dreams. Not like the vampires, who bite you and drain your blood, but like a parasite draining your very mind itself."

He raised a hand, touching the side of Ryou's face tenderly. "You had a particularly _delicious_ nightmare last night, little human."

Ryou shivered at monster's cold touch. "Oh, really?"

"Mmhm. A delectable little dream about death and grief and hopelessness, and a beautiful woman who left you behind."

The image of his mother crossed through Ryou's head as he realized what he must have dreamed. "Oh. That wasn't a nightmare, exactly. That was a bad memory. When my mother died." He shrugged, too accustomed to the memory to respond emotionally to it. "It haunts me sometimes while I sleep."

It was Bakura's turn to look confused. Removing his hand from Ryou's face, the beetle backed up until he was standing upright again. He looked as though the human's reaction, or maybe lack of a reaction, had completely baffled him.

"You are a strange human, aren't you?"

"I suppose." He pulled himself back into a sitting position. He watched the Bed Bug carefully, still wary but significantly less concerned than he had been earlier. "You're not as scary as I first thought you were."

"Really? Sorry to disappoint you, then."

"No, no!" Ryou shook his head quickly. "I'm glad that you seem less scary. Well, less scary than most of the other monsters I've met so far."

"What sort of monsters have you met so far?"

Ryou thought for a moment before counting them off on his fingers. "Well, there was the vampires. And the Knights of Fright. And those pumpkins, and the trees, and – eugh! - those horrid spider-things!"

He shivered at the memory. He couldn't help but notice the amused smirk Bakura had on his face.

"There was that doll woman, and the gatekeeper, and, um... ah! My friends and I stayed at Mai's casino for awhile! We met her, too!"

"Mai Kujaku?" Bakura face changed to one of disgust. "She's the worst. She eats beetles, you know."

Now it was Ryou's turn to make a disgusted face. "Oh, dear... Well, if it's any consolation, she's not very nice to humans either. She nearly tried to sell my friends and I to those vampires! And," he added in a softer voice. "... she probably got rid of our backpacks by now."

"... 'Your backpacks?'"

"Yes, um," the human bit his lip, suddenly realizing how much he'd been talking and wishing he would have shut up sooner. "All of my belongings were in my bag. Yugi's and Marik's, too. Those bags were all we had left of our homes."

A heavy silence filled the apartment, broken only by soft clinking made as Bakura moved around, the chinks in his exoskeleton rubbing against one another.

They didn't talk much after that. Ryou felt a little better after eating, and then promptly curled back up in the warm blankets and began to doze. For the first time in awhile, the human had begun to feel that he was in a truly safe location, and the warm bed beneath him lulled him back to sleep.

"My sedative is still in your system, it seems," Bakura remarked. He laughed quietly, a strange, rasping sort of sound, and Ryou felt several hands move to tuck the top blanket tighter around him. "Get some more sleep, little human. We'll talk more in the morning."

.

.

.

Slow as it was, morning did eventually come. Or, at least, Ryou thought it was morning. The apartment was just as dark as ever, and he couldn't see anything that he would consider to be exactly daylight when he tried to peek through a window.

Bakura was out, it seemed. Which left Ryou alone in the strange apartment. Something he wasn't really at all comfortable with.

 _Maybe, if I get out the door and I'm quick about it, I can meet up with Yugi and Marik again,_ the human thought to himself, grabbing hold of his pile of clothes and beginning to pull them on. He didn't really want to just run out on his host like that, but he also didn't want to stick around if it turned out that Bakura wasn't as trustworthy as he seemed.

Ryou had pulled on his shoes, shirt, and jacket, and he was starting to pull his hat down over his head when the apartment door was thrown open again. The human jumped, letting out a yelp of surprise when he saw his host standing in the open doorway, the beetle-man's large frame nearly blocking the door entirely.

"Leaving so soon?" Bakura asked, his voice little more than a hiss. A bag of some kind was slung over his shoulder, suggesting that he'd brought something back with him.

Ryou swallowed before forcing himself to stand up straight, nodding defiantly. "My friends are probably worried about me. I need to find them again."

"Where would you start looking?"

"The mayor's office," he answered, thinking back to what that vampire woman had said. "That's where we were heading before we got separated."

The beetle nodded. His face and voice were eerily neutral, and Ryou couldn't tell what his host was thinking. After a moment, the beetle shrugged, moving into the apartment and setting down the bag that he carried.

"You're a determined little human, I'll give you that." The Bed Bug gave Ryou a look that seemed both calm and angry at once. "I hope you appreciate everything I've done for you, mortal."

Ryou frowned. "Oh, don't guilt trip me like that. You and I both know that you only took me in so you could eat whatever dreams I may have had." Okay, so that was more of a guess on his part, but, judging from the surprised way Bakura looked at him, he was probably right.

"But," he continued, sighing a bit. Then, he smiled. "You _did_ take care of me last night, when you really didn't have to. And you gave me food, so... Thank you. A lot."

To his surprise, Bakura returned his smile. It looked much more like a cruel smirk on the beetle's face, but Ryou could see the strangely happy, genuinely friendly intentions that hid behind the six glowing red eyes.

"You are a special little human," Bakura chuckled. "I haven't encountered very many of your kind, and none of the others were like you."

"Maybe they would be if you visited them when they were awake."

His retort earned him another chuckle from the beetle-creature. "Well, if you're going to be leaving, you'll probably want to take this with you."

The Bed Bug leaned down to open his bag, pulling out three familiar backpacks from within. "I stopped by the trash bins outside of Mai's. Found these. They smell like humans, and this one especially smells like you."

Ryou's eyes lit up as he recognized the bag dangling from the beetle's fingertips. "My backpack! Oh, thank you, Bakura!"

If anything, the Bed Bug looked uncomfortable, as though the human's gratitude had thrown him off balance somehow. "Um... sure?"

"You're supposed to say 'you're welcome,'" Ryou said, frowning slightly. But still, his new friend's impoliteness aside, he couldn't help but smile as he accepted his backpack, holding it close to himself. "But seriously, thank you. This means more to me than you know."

Without waiting for an answer, he pulled on the zipper, opening the bag and peering into it anxiously, wanting to make sure all of his meager belongings were still there. Out of a side flap, he brought the item giving him the most concern, carefully holding the tattered old family photograph in his hand.

Bakura came to stand beside him, leaning over his shoulder to look. He brought up one of his sharp digits, the size and shape of the body part too strange for Ryou to consider it a finger, and pointed at the center of the picture where two small children sat together, nestled lovingly between their parents. "Is that you?"

"... Yes. And my mother, and my sister. They're both dead, now."

"And your father?"

Ryou's voice became cold and clipped. "Would prefer I were dead with them."

He glared at the image, his eyes darting back and forth between his child self and his father. He didn't like how similar the two figures looked – same jaw, same high cheekbones, same hairline, same slanted eye shape... And when Ryou had last seen the man, Father's hair was turning white, a side effect of aging, and that only made the physical similarities between father and son all the more obvious.

Ryou fully expected Bakura to comment on how much he looked like his father. Everyone did, if they ever saw the two together like this, and they always had. It was an inevitable remark that Ryou would just have to live with for the rest of his life, one that he would have considered a compliment so many years ago, but now it just made him remember his father's final words to him, the memory biting into him like a knife.

"You look like her, you know. Your mother, I mean."

Well, that was new.

"What do you mean?" Ryou asked. He shared no physical similarities with his mother. How could this monster say that he did?

Bakura shrugged. "Dunno. Something about her reminds me of you. Maybe it's the mouth? Her smile looks like yours."

Ryou blinked twice, dumbfounded. His face slowly broke into a beaming smile. "Thank you, Bakura."

"Don't mention it. Ever again. To anyone."

.

.

.

Minutes later, Ryou was bundled up in all of his own clothing, as well as an old and worn but still warm coat of Bakura's.

"It smells like me," the Bed Bug explained. He winked, grinning cruelly. "It'll help cover up that frightened human smell. Most monsters won't bat an eye if you just smell like another monster."

"Thank you, Bakura."

"Thank me one more time and I'll hit you." Despite the edge to Bakura's voice, Ryou found himself unable to fear the beetle-creature anymore – he was all bark and no bite. "The mayor's office is on Six-hundred and Sixty-Sixth Street, so you'd better start walking if you want to make it there before noon."

Ryou nodded, moving to shoulder his own backpack as well as Yugi's and Marik's. He began to walk down the road, turning around to call out his gratitude again, but bit his tongue before he could, changing his words to "Will I see you again?"

The Bed Bug smirked at him, mandibles moving aside as a long tongue swiped hungrily across his lips. "Probably in your nightmares, little human."

Ryou hid his smile as he turned back around, marching along with renewed resolve. Hopefully the others were waiting for him, and they weren't _too_ worried or anything.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- ... Huh. I don't think I have any notes for this chapter. *shrugging noise***

 **\- Anyway, I hoped everyone enjoyed it!**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: What's Lost Is Found

written 9/28/2018 – 10/1/2018

published 10/8/2018

2,062 words

* * *

 _Tender lumplings everywhere_

 _Life's no fun without a good scare_

* * *

The mayor's office was small and cramped and not at all intended for use as a place for travelers to sleep. And yet, that's exactly what Pegasus made the two humans do.

"We'll continue looking for your friend," the two-faced mayor had promised. He shot an angry look in the direction of Kaiba and his team, once again sending the three child-sized monsters scuttling to hide behind their much larger leader. One by one, the skeletal Mokuba, the witch-y Rebecca, and the devilish Leon all cautiously peered out around Kaiba's long, bony legs. They were terrified of the monstrous mayor, and Marik wasn't sure he could blame them.

"I'm sure we'll find him, won't we, Kaiba?" The mayor's voice had a growl and a hiss lying underneath it. Just listening to it sent shivers down Marik's spine, and he could see the other monsters all shrinking in on themselves. Even Pegasus' biggest fan Otogi was wincing and stepping backwards, as though trying to get away from the mayor's voice.

Kaiba, on the other hand, returned Pegasus' glare with just as much fire, his deep eye sockets morphing into an unnatural 'v' shape. "We will look. But I make no promises about finding him."

Yugi's face fell, the hopeful spark in his eyes vanishing, and Marik felt more than ever like kicking himself.

Since it was so late, Pegasus insisted that the humans stay in the temporary safety of his office, telling them to rest their bodies.

"At least try to get some sleep," he suggested, driving them back to his office. Jounouchi, Anzu, Honda, and Otogi all stayed behind, saying that they would help Kaiba and the others search for the missing human for awhile longer.

Arriving back at his hole-in-the-wall office, Pegasus gently forced Marik and Yugi each into the soft chairs in front of his desk. He looked them both over with some concern, offering them a tired smile. "You've both gone through a lot tonight. You won't be of any help to your friend in this exhausted state."

"But-" Yugi opened his mouth to argue, then sighed, defeated. He slouched back into the chair like a deflated balloon, causing the small frame of his body to look even smaller. "... fine."

Marik felt his stomach drop. He turned so that he was facing away from Yugi, pretending to get comfortable in the chair as a way of avoiding facing his remaining friend.

His pragmatic side recognized the wisdom of what Pegasus said – there wasn't anything the two of them could do to help Ryou at the moment, not when they were exhausted, and probably the best thing they could do was wait until the morning. Especially in an environment as hostile as this Halloween Town of Hollow World, what could two humans hope to accomplish?

Yugi sighed again, his voice low, hardly a whisper. "But, still... I hope Ryou's alright out there. If anything bad has happened to him..."

The air hung thick and unsettled with that incomplete sentence, and Marik fell into a fitful sleep.

.

.

.

"RYOU!"

Marik's eyes flew open, the sound of Yugi's delighted voice breaking through his slumber. His body woke up faster than his brain did, jumping to an alert sitting position and swiveling around in his chair. His drowsy mind began to catch up with the world around him, and his eyes widened at the sight before him.

There was a crowd of familiar monsters packed into the mayor's office. Kaiba was there, with Mokuba, Rebecca, and Leon all nipping at his heels. Anzu was flapping her wings around excitedly, with Jounouchi and Honda crying out in alarm and ducking on either side of her, trying to stay close while avoiding being hit. Pegasus himself stood in front of the door, carefully closing it behind him, grinning from ear to ear. Otogi stood beside Pegasus, and, although his shadowy form made it hard for Marik to be sure, it looked like he may have had a similar smile stretched across his own face.

And, right in the middle of them all, being held firmly in place by Kaiba's body hands, was a very flustered and startled Ryou, with messy bed-head and a comically large coat wrapped around his thin shoulders.

Yugi had let out the surprised outcry, springing up from his chair across the room, launching himself at the pale albino. He wrapped the confused Ryou in a tight hug, murmuring soft, soothing words to him.

"Oh, Yugi! Yugi, I was so scared! I was afraid I'd never see you again!"

"It's okay, you're here, you're safe."

Marik let out a breath that he didn't know he'd been holding. Relief washed through his body, and he smiled.

"We found him wandering the streets this morning," Kaiba explained. "We didn't realize he was a human at first – the coat he's wearing smells like Bed Bug."

"'B-Bed Bug?'" Jounouchi repeated. He made an alarmed, whimpering sound in his throat. Honda and Anzu looked equally as disturbed beside him, and the three monsters gripped each other in a frightened hug of some sort. "Y-you don't m-mean...?"

Kaiba raised an eyebrow, glancing at the cowering trio with a face of disinterest. "There's only one Bed Bug in Halloween Town."

"But – but -!" Honda sputtered, his large fish eyes darting between Kaiba's face and the Ryou's coat. He shook his head, disbelieving. "It couldn't have been Bakura!"

"You've met him?" Ryou asked brightly. He exchanged a smile with Yugi. "This very nice – well, not _nice_ , exactly, but rather decent – beetle man named Bakura found me and took care of me last night."

Yugi looked at his friend with some interest. "Oh?"

"Yeah! He took care of my injuries and let me sleep in his bed. He even gave me some food! In exchange, he ate my nightmares?"

"He ate _what_ now?"

Marik held up his hands, not following any of the words being thrown through the air around him. "Hold up! Start over! Who or what are we talking about?"

"Hi, Marik!"

"Hi, Ryou." The Middle Eastern American turned to Kaiba, frowning up at the tall, skeletal man. "Explain."

Kaiba sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose – or, at least, where his nose should have been. "We found your friend earlier this morning. He was wandering through the streets, before most monsters are awake yet, and didn't seem too sure of where he was going, since he kept looking at the street signs."

"He looked like he was lost," Mokuba added, hanging off the older skeleton's arm. "When we got close to him, we could tell he was a human."

Leon nodded. "We couldn't tell at first, since he looks so pale and everything."

"We scared him at first, but he calmed down once we explained who we were," Kaiba continued. "It seems like he spent the night over at Bakura's place, which isn't far from the Hanging Woods but not someplace I would have expected."

"Why not?"

"Well..."

When Kaiba failed the answer, Otogi jumped in. His dark face remained unreadable, but his tone of voice sounded as though he was trying hard to be helpful. "Bakura is a Bed Bug, the only Bed Bug in the region. He pretty well known around here for avoiding folks, and when he _does_ have to interact with people, he's a bit, ah, rude?"

Honda was a little more open with his opinion. "He's an a**hole."

" _Honda_!"

"Well, he _is_!"

Ryou shrugged. "I didn't think he was that bad. Uncouth, sure, and definitely not the friendliest person I've ever met, but he wasn't as bad as all _that_! He even got our backpacks for us."

At the mention of their backpacks, Marik's eyes widened, and he glanced downward, only just now recognizing the objects that hung from Ryou's arms. He'd been so focused on the return and safety of his friend, he hadn't even noticed what Ryou was carrying with him.

"Here, Marik!" Ryou tossed the familiar bag in his direction.

The tan human caught it, quickly patting down the bag, trying to feel around the objects inside. Seemed like everything was still there. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Yugi performing a similar procedure to his own backpack.

Glancing around the room, it seemed that Pegasus was the only one of the monster set who wasn't at all concerned about this 'Bakura' creature. The two-faced mayor seemed to be completely relaxed, a smile teasing his lips as he slunk around the room. Marik watched as the monstrous mayor settled back at his desk, his long limbs spread out in a way that made the desk look much too small for them, and his spidery fingers began rifling through the stacks of papers scattered across the desktop.

"Now that everyone is here, safe and sound," Pegasus began. "We'll have to figure out what to do with you three. Humans don't enter our world regularly, so there's no official protocol for what happens when humans _do_."

Marik frowned, remembering what Adina had said earlier. "But humans _do_ sometimes come here, right?"

"Yes. Sadly, they don't often make it very far." Pegasus pursed his lips. "Occasionally, they get recorded in our history as 'lucky,' but those are few and far between. Most recently, there was a human woman, a few years ago – she came through a Rift right outside our capital city, Duat. I believe she still lives there."

Jounouchi perked up, his mask twisting into a comical grin. "Yup! She chose to live in Duat, instead of going home. She said her brother was dead, and she had no home to go back to, so she stayed on here." Turning to the three humans, he added, "She helps tutor my kid sister during the week. She's real nice."

"I don't mean to be rude or anything, but we don't really want to stay here." Yugi's shoulder slumped a bit. "We'd like to get home, if that's at all possible."

Pegasus made a clicking noise with his mouth that sounded slightly put out. "Well, whatever happens next, I'm not of the position to really decide. I'm only an appointed government official, after all. I'll have to talk to my superior to find out what to do about this situation."

He held up a finger. "But, in the meantime, I can arrange for a place for you three to stay. My superior is a busy man, with a lot of things to take care of, and it make take some time for him to decide what the next step for us should be. So, during that time..."

The mayor reached into a drawer, pulling out a hotel pamphlet and waving it around with a flourish. "The best place for you three to stay is at the Spider's Parlor Inn."

Ryou bristled, shrinking back to hide behind Yugi. "Spider?!"

"Not like the ones who live in the Hanging Woods," Kaiba cut in. "The inn is run by Kisara. She's a business woman, pure and simple, and she knows not to eat her guests."

Ryou didn't look any more at ease. Neither did Yugi. And, honestly, Marik didn't feel too great about the idea, either.

"Trust me, you'll be perfectly safe there," Pegasus promised. "Kaiba will make certain of it. Won't you, Kaiba?"

The tall skeleton grunted in response, but otherwise said nothing.

Pegasus clapped his hands. "Then it's settled! I'll get word out to my superior right away, and then we'll see about getting you boys some food and a place to spend the night."

"... Fine." Marik was hesitant to agree, but there didn't seem to be a lot of other options available to them right now. He saw Yugi's shoulder slump once more, this time in utter defeat.

"By the way," he added after a moment. He looked straight at Pegasus, filled with curiosity. "Who is your superior, anyway?"

An eerie grin spread across the mayor's features, and he gave Marik a toothy smile that made the human's spine tingle.

"Why, my superior is the highest ranking official in all the land – it's the Shadow King Atem, himself!"

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- Bakura is like that one person in the neighborhood who no one likes, which is fine with him because he doesn't like anyone else, either. But Honda, who prefers people to be straight-forward and honest, likes him the least.**

 **\- Not so much a note as I just want everyone to bear in mind that Bakura has six arms, ergo his coat has six sleeves. Ryou is currently wearing a coat that's at least ten sizes too large for him and has multiple sleeves that he has nothing to do with. I just think that image is adorable.**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Come Into My Parlor

written 10/1/2018 – 10/6/2018

published 11/22/2018

2,512 words

* * *

 _That's our job, but we're not mean_

 _In our town of Halloween_

* * *

Kaiba drove the hearse this time. Pegasus all but pushed the three human men into the backseat, but he himself stayed behind at his office.

"I have a very important message to send to my superior," he remarked with a wink. "Besides, I trust Kaiba to take good care of you."

"I'm not a babysitter," the skeleton growled. Despite his words, though, he still had to shake the three monster children off his legs and coat before he could climb into the vehicle, and Yugi tried hard not to openly smile at the image.

Pegasus sighed in bemusement before answering, holding his hands out in a pacifying manner. "No, no, of course you're not a babysitter. However, this is a matter of security, after all, and that _does_ happen to fall into your area of expertise, does it not?"

Kaiba made a grunting sound, but said nothing.

The skeleton driver glared at the road the entire time, paying careful attention to road signs but practically ignoring the pedestrians.

Yugi couldn't help but stare at the other monsters as they walked by, glad that the hearse windows were tinted from the outside, preventing any of the passers-by from staring back at him. He watched with a kind of terrified fascination as spider-creatures, fish-people, skeletons, animated corpses, mummies, werewolves, and even stranger creatures walked the streets. They walked their dogs, delivered mail, and bought groceries, and commuted to work, just as though they were the same as the people who lived in the Surface World.

Which they were, Yugi realized. But, they were also different. It was the same feeling as when he first moved to America – the people were the same in many ways, but also different in many others.

The car turned into a residential area, and before long Kaiba had parked, throwing open the doors and forcing the human males out into the open. A rusty, iron gate was the first thing they saw, swinging on its hinges in the cool breeze. The gate stood open out over a stone path that led up to the door of an old building, and a tall, rotting, wooden sign stood proud and erect in the middle of the lawn of dead, brown grass: 'Spider's Parlor Inn.'

The building looked old, as though it had been standing there for a few hundred years but hadn't been very carefully kept. The windows looked dark from the outside, with spiderwebs draping across them.

Kaiba walked in front of the humans, glancing back at them out of the corner of his eye sockets. He held the gate open, gesturing for the humans to enter ahead of him, his eyes constantly darting around the entire immediate area, watching for any potential threats. Then, sidestepping the trio of mortals, the tall skeleton moved to the front door of the inn, knocking exactly three times before he opened it. Marik entered the building first, with Yugi and Ryou close behind him. Kaiba followed them, pulling the door closed behind himself, carefully latching it.

The front room of the inn was dimly lit, an extravagant chandelier hanging in the center of the ceiling, dripping with waxy candles and glass prisms that scattered the light from the candles, creating little shimmers and rainbows across the walls and floor. The walls were decorated with graying, peeling wallpaper and intricately carved oak panels, as well as the occasional painting that covered an otherwise bare spot. Lavish sofas sat in a corner around a large coffee table, with decorative vases full of dying, withered flowers in the middle of the coffee table, their withered petals falling all over the table, floor, and sofa cushions. A front desk took up one side of the room, made from the same oak paneling as the wall behind it. Spiderwebs were strung all over the room, ends connecting to the walls, the chandelier, the pieces of furniture, and even the flowers.

A spider-woman sat at the desk, sipping tea from a china cup. She glanced up from her tea, smiling gently and blinking the five eyes that arced over the top of her face.

"Ah," she murmured, her eyes sweeping over the three humans and landing on the skeleton behind them. "I thought I heard someone rapping at my chamber door."

"Yes, well..." Kaiba coughed a bit, shifting on his feet. If Yugi didn't know better, he may have thought their skeletal security guard had a bit of a crush the spidery woman.

Kaiba cleared his throat. "I have some guests for you to take care of."

"Oh?"

"Yes. These three humans," he gestured to the trio. "Came through a Rift by accident. They are to stay here for the time being, at the mayor's orders, while he tries to sort out what to do with them."

Setting her teacup down on the desk, Kisara rose to a standing position. From the waist up, she resembled a human, albeit with five eyes arced across her forehead, but from the waist down was the body of an enormous spider, the abdomen stretching back to be at least seven feet long. Eight long legs spread out from her abdomen, stretching across the room. With legs that long, she didn't need to walk around her desk to get a closer look at her visitors – instead, she just pushed herself up to her full height, her head towering over the other people in the room, and stepped over the desk, stopping in front of the group and kneeling her body down until she was almost at eye level with Marik.

Her upper body looked delicate, while her lower body looked terrifyingly powerful, and altogether her appearance left Yugi feeling very unsettled.

She smiled demurely down at them. "It isn't often that we get human visitors in our town. But I'll see what I can do." She gestured to herself, placing her hand over her chest. "I am Kisara, the Parlor Spider. And who might you be?"

"I'm Marik," the taller of Yugi's two friends said on his right. He nodded in their direction, blonde hair shifting. "This is Yugi, and Ryou."

"Hi."

"How do you do?"

Kisara looked at each of them in turn, her eyes lingering briefly on Ryou and the large overcoat he wore. "I see you've met Bakura."

Yugi looked up at her sharply, curious. "Do you know him?"

"Yes and no."

He frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I know _of_ Bakura, but I don't know him _personally,_ " she answered patiently. She gazed intently at Yugi for a moment, and he couldn't help but squirm in place, her stare unsettling him in a way he wasn't expecting.

Yugi froze as the woman's hand came closer to his face. Her fingers wrapped gently under his chin, forcing his head up a little. She scrutinized his face, studying him carefully, before beaming down at him in a friendly manner.

"You boys look like you haven't had a decent sleep in awhile." She let go of Yugi's face, continuing to beam at the young men as she stepped back. "Why don't you three come with me, and I'll see if I have a bedroom available that will work for you. I believe I have one with an attached bathroom, so if you would like to bathe yourselves as well that is an option."

As she led them towards an open hallway, she turned back to give Kaiba a stern look. "Crawford _will_ be paying for all of their expenses, won't he?"

This brought something akin to a smile to Kaiba's face. "I'll make certain he does."

.

.

.

Kisara led them to a room with two queen-size beds and an adjacent bathroom. The rooms were very tidy, much to Yugi's surprise. He'd been expecting there to be layers of dust and cobwebs over everything, and the bedroom to be in as much a disarray as the rest of the inn.

"I'll send up some food later," the spider woman promised. She smiled brightly at the men before she left, closing the door behind her. "In the meantime, please feel free to relax in whatever way you desire."

To his credit, Yugi managed to hesitate for exactly twenty seconds before he pitched himself onto one of the large, soft beds, hugging his backpack close to his chest. "Alright, well, I'm going to sleep for awhile. Wake me up if something tries to eat me again."

Marik made a snorting sound. "You may have to wake me up _first_ , in that case."

"I guess you won't fight me for a shower, then?" Ryou asked. He was quick to deposit his bag and his borrowed coat, making quick strides towards the bathroom, trying to get there before anyone else did.

"Hey, burn that coat when you get out!" Marik called after him. "It smells like death!"

Ryou peeked his head back out around the bathroom door, smiling. "Not a chance!"

"I'll even burn it _for_ you!"

"Marik, don't you dare-!"

.

.

.

They stayed at Kisara's for the next two days and nights. Her inn was so quiet and had such a strong feeling of security that hung in the air like a fog, and the longer Yugi stayed, the less anxious he felt about the Hollow World around him.

Kisara was very nice. She went out of her way to make sure her human 'guests' were comfortable, procuring and fixing food that they could eat, and providing them with anything they might need. She even asked Kaiba to bring some spare clothing over that the humans could wear, so that the clothes they came in wearing could be laundered.

Yugi smiled to himself, sinking deeper into the wooden chair he sat on in Kisara's kitchen. His hair was wet, freshly showered, and a warm cup of tea sat in front of him, steam hitting his face like a tender kiss. He was wearing leather pants that maybe hugged his skin a bit too tight, and a dark purple sweater with a rib cage design knitted into it. Both articles of clothing were apparently items that Mokuba had outgrown, and Yugi tried not to feel offended that he, a grown adult man, had been given a child's hand-me-downs to wear. On the other hand, they fit fairly well, and they were warm, and it really was a nice gesture, so who was he to complain?

Kisara moved around in the kitchen, her enormous spider body seeming almost too big for the small space. Her movements were surprisingly graceful, though, as she pulled the humans' clothes out of the washing machine and lifted them up, wringing the excess water out of each article of clothing before she hung them up. Long strands of spider silk stretched across the room, from the tops of the walls to the tall ceiling, and she was using the strands like her own self-made clothesline. It was raining heavily outside, and Yugi couldn't help but wonder if his spidery host was hanging the laundry indoors out of necessity, or if this was something she usually did.

"Seto came by earlier," Kisara said. She meant Kaiba. "I'm told Mayor Crawford is coming to check in on you three, today," She turned to Yugi, smiling at him. "Maybe that means he'll have news of some sort on how to help you get home."

"Yeah, maybe!" Yugi winced when he heard his own voice. He sounded hopeful and uncertain and too excited, and it felt rude to be so openly eager to return to his own world when he was talking to someone who lived here.

But Kisara didn't seem to mind. Or, if she did, she didn't show it. Instead, she continued talking to him, her voice just as kind and friendly as ever. "You miss it, don't you? Your home, I mean?"

Before he could respond, she corrected him, smiling gently to him all the while. "The home where you grew up. The home you lost long ago."

"Oh..." Despite being a grown adult, Yugi couldn't help but feel very small and lost, suddenly feeling like a child who's been separated from their mother in a store. The spider woman's words brought images to his mind, making him think of his childhood and his family.

"I..." He stammered, his throat constricting around his words. "Yes. Very much."

"What do you miss about it?" Kisara pressed him gently.

Yugi frowned, not exactly wanting to bare his soul to a near stranger. But, something about the way she was looking at him... it made him think of his mother. He swallowed a lump in his throat, and that was all it took for his tongue to find words.

"I miss feeling loved," he admitted. The words came easier and faster as more of them came out. "I miss feeling wanted. I miss feeling like I belonged. I haven't felt that way in a long time, not since... Not since my grandfather died, when I was thirteen. Even though Ryou and his father took me in and looked after me, I just felt like a burden. Unwanted, unneeded, didn't belong there."

Oh god, there were tears dripping down his face. He didn't know how Kisara had done it, but somehow, just by looking at him and speaking to him, she'd unlocked years worth of buried emotions.

On her part, the spider woman just sat there, listening patiently as everything flew out of Yugi's mouth. How Ryou's father had decided to move to America, and the boys were forced to come with him, despite how much they wanted to stay in their hometown. How Ryou's father had somehow learned about Ryou's and his little secrets and had summarily thrown them both out into the streets.

Kisara nodded and pursed her lips sympathetically through the whole thing.

"I'm sorry that such terrible things have happened to you," she said when he was finished. "No one deserves any of that."

"Maybe I _do_ deserve it," he laughed weakly. "Maybe I'm really such a horrible person, and I don't even realize it, and this is my punishment."

Kisara frowned and stared down at him, her icy glare leaving no room for arguments. " _No one_ deserves to have _any of that_ happen to them for _any reason_. It's just that bad things happen to anyone, without rhyme or reason. Such is the nature of life."

Then, just as quickly, she smiled again. "But don't worry too much. I have a feeling that you'll find what you're looking for, sooner or later – a place where you're happy, where you feel loved and wanted."

She sounded so certain, and so matter-of-fact. Yugi wanted to ask her how she knew, but bit his tongue, choosing not to voice that question.

She finished the laundry and he finished his tea, and the silence that followed left him with the surreal feeling that their conversation had never happened.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- The title of this chapter is taken from the poem, "the Spider and the Fly," which I actually had to read in elementary school and the words have stayed with me ever since. While the spider's guest doesn't get a happy ending in the poem, Kisara treats her guests fairly well.**

 **\- I tend to write Kisara as a mother figure who may have the ability to read minds. I'm not exactly sure why I do that, but it's become quite apparent that I do.**

 **\- Kisara referring to Kaiba's knocking as "someone rapping at my chamber door" is a reference to Poe's "the Raven."**

 **\- I can picture Mokuba, Rebecca, and Leon dancing circles around Kaiba, singing "Seto likes Kisara! Seto likes Kisara!" X-D**

 **\- Kisara's monster form appearance is partially inspired by Moffat, the spider-girl from 'Undertale,' and Rachnera, the spider-girl from 'Monster Musume.'**

 **\- My version of Yugi has a deep-seated fear of loss and abandonment, as well as a tendency to blame himself for things beyond his control. (Somebody please come give this poor guy a hug. Ra knows he needs one.)**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

written 10/7/2018 – 10/15/2018

published 11/22/2018

word count: 1,986

* * *

 _Won't you please make way for a very special guy?_

* * *

Two days and nights passed by before Pegasus heard back from the king. To Ryou, it felt as though time had crawled by, as though it had been two weeks rather than only two days, his anxious desire to return to the Surface World eating at him.

But, what scared Ryou the most, was how comfortable he was getting in this world, and at such a fast pace. While he hadn't gone outside and interacted with any of the Hollow World's monstrous denizens since he and the others had come to Kisara's, he found himself easily adjusting to the dark sky, stormy weather, and even the cool temperatures. Glancing out the window and seeing the landscape of dead trees, or looking up and seeing the strange, eerie moon... none of that bothered him anymore.

He pulled Bakura's coat tighter around himself. He really ought to find a way to return it to the Bed Bug one of these days.

Pegasus arrived in the evening, with both Kaiba and Otogi in tow. The mayor's head was turned so that his first face was in front, smiling widely. Kisara set the mayor and his assistants and the three wayward humans up in her dining room parlor, carefully closing and locking all the doors and windows leading into the room.

"I don't have many guests aside from you three, at the moment," she explained to Ryou, Yugi, and Marik. "But even so, I don't think you'll want anyone mistakenly walking in here while you're talking."

Her smile was as kind and pleasant as ever, but Ryou couldn't help but notice how she accepted a dollar bill that Pegasus slipped to her, neither monster being quite as discrete as they probably thought they were being.

"As you know, I sent word to my superior, inquiring as to what should be done to ensure your safety. That is to say, I sent a letter to the king." Pegasus frowned a bit, leaning back in his chair. His eyes stared up at the ceiling with an intensity that Ryou thought could have bored holes straight through the plaster.

"Yes? And?" Marik prompted.

Pegasus's words came slow and deliberate. "He didn't exactly give us an answer."

"... How so?"

It was Kaiba who answered this time, his voice sounding just as clipped and frustrated as ever. "The king is young, and has only ever met one other human, that being the woman who lives in the capital city Duat. He's curious, and he wants to meet you in person." He rolled his eyes. "That was the only response we received."

If this had been an anime, Yugi would have sweatdropped. "... Seriously?"

"Seriously." Pegasus sighed. "He arrives tomorrow. The good news though, is that he wants to talk to you. So, if you ask him about the possibility of getting back through a Rift, he'll have to listen to you."

He seemed fairly certain on that point, and Ryou could only hope he was right.

.

.

.

Ryou was thrown out of bed earlier the next morning than he had expected. His dream – a dream, for once, and not a bad memory disguised as a nightmare – was interrupted by an urgent knocking on the door to the room in the inn where the humans were staying.

"Wake up, little mortals!" Kisara hissed from the other side of the door, her voice uncharacteristically serious in tone. "The royal procession approaches!"

Ryou sat up in bed beside Yugi, blinking incoherently. "What?"

"The king! The king is coming! Get up, get dressed, and prepare yourselves for the royal audience!"

Marik swore and jumped up from the other bed, grabbing at his borrowed clothes and trying to pull the pants on all in the same movement. He tripped over himself, landing hard on the floor, swearing viciously under his breath all the while.

Within minutes, the three young men were up and dressed, their backpacks slung over their shoulders as they scrambled down the stairs, Marik in front and Ryou in the back. Kisara was waiting for them at the bottom of the staircase, with Kaiba and his troupe of monster children beside her.

"C'mon, let's motor!" Rebecca shouted, hanging off of Kaiba's elbow. She stuck her tongue out at the humans. "You geezers take for- _freaking_ -ever to get anything done, don't you?"

"Who are you calling a 'geezer,' brat?" Marik retorted, sneering at the child.

Before it could escalate to a fight or anything, Kaiba looked down at the little witch, frowning. "Rebecca, be nice." Turning back to the humans, he nodded his head in the direction of front door, presumably referring to a car parked out on the street. "Shall we go?"

The skeleton led then out to where Pegasus's car was parked, and soon all six of the human adults and the monster children were seated inside, packed in as tightly as they could be. Kisara smiled and waved 'good-bye' to them from her inn's front porch, a gesture that Yugi and Ryou both did their best to return. Marik, for reasons Ryou didn't know, pointedly turned the other way, refusing to look at their spidery host.

"What's wrong, Marik?" Ryou asked as Kaiba started the car. He pursed his lips in mild irritation. He didn't want Kisara to think one of the humans was being rude to her when she had done so much for them.

The Middle Eastern American didn't even turn to look at him. "... She knew too much."

His words reminded Ryou of a private conversation he had had with their spidery host the previous day. He had run into her while she was cleaning the hall outside of the room he and the others were staying in. She'd smiled to him, and they'd talked, and eventually it had started to become evident that there was more to this spider woman than met the eye.

When they'd talked, Kisara's eyes had never left his own, staring at him as if she might bore five neat little holes into his face. The way she spoke to him with that friendly, polite voice of hers set him as ease. But she seemed to know things about him that he never told her – about Mother and Amane, about Father, and even about the nightmares that Bakura took from him.

Their conversation was bizarre and unsettling, and Ryou couldn't help but wonder if Marik had had a similar experience with the spider woman, but perhaps it had been less favorable for the other man.

But, he wasn't given a lot of time to think on that, as Kaiba suddenly floored the gas pedal and the hearse took off like a rocket, roaring down the street like a wild animal and slamming the passengers firmly back into their seats. Ryou had never been on a roller coaster in his life, but he imagined that this was probably what it felt like. He hoped fervently that he lived through this experience so that he could maybe confirm that theory at a later time.

Before Ryou knew it, Kaiba had driven them across town, pulling into a stop just outside of the main street square in the center of town. Throngs of monsters stood up and down the street on all sides, all excitedly watching and waiting for something.

Yugi sat up taller in his seat beside Ryou, craning his neck to see. "What's happening?"

Kaiba set his jaw, gritting his teeth at an unnatural angle. "Looks like the king has arrived." He growled. "You three need to get inside. There are too many monsters out here."

To Ryou's surprise, the skeleton suddenly turned around, grinning smugly. "Luckily for you, I thought something like this might happen, and I've already planned for it. Otogi! Time for you to get to work!"

Yugi and Marik both jumped aside in their seat as the shadowy figure of Otogi the Moon's Shadow suddenly appeared in between them, sitting in such a relaxed position it looked almost as though he had been there the entire time.

"Sorry, did I miss my cue?" Otogi asked, rolling his head lazily. He stretched out his arms and legs as he turned to gaze at the humans, flashing them a friendly wink. "Kaiba asked if he could borrow me for a bit. Looks like he was right to do so."

"Of course I was right!" The skeletal man snorted.

A toothy smile appeared out of the blackness of Otogi's face as he grinned, making him look a bit like a shadowy version of the Cheshire cat.

"As a Moon's Shadow, I have the ability to travel through shadows," he explained. "I can also carry passengers with me when I do this. Usually it's just my rats, though, so I'm not sure how transporting grown adults will go. But, I'm up for trying it out if you are."

Nothing about this entire conversation was exactly instilling confidence in Ryou and the others, but there didn't seem to be any clear alternatives.

"I can only travel with one at a time," Otogi explained. "So who wants to go first?"

After a moment of hesitation, during which no one volunteered, Ryou looked at Otogi, squaring his shoulders. "I'll go first, I guess."

"Alright, then!" Otogi's grin vanished into his body's inky blackness, and he reached his arms out. His body began to change, becoming something like a thin, black sheet that wrapped itself around the human.

Once he was completely encased, Ryou couldn't see or hear anything outside of his own head, but he could feel a tightening and a puckering and a shrinking sensation, and suddenly he felt very compressed and cramped, like he'd been zipped into a small sleeping bag.

There was a strange feeling of being suddenly pulled in a certain direction, and then Ryou found himself being released from Otogi's grip, the shadow man's arms unwrapping from around him. The human blinked in the sudden change of lighting, slowly turning his head and taking in his surroundings. To his surprise, he'd somehow been whisked out of Pegasus's car and was now standing in the middle of the mayor's office.

Pegasus stood in front of him, a broad smile on his face. The mayor leaned over, his long arm coming closer to the two newcomers, still smiling as he tenderly patted the top of Otogi's head.

"Good work, Ryuji!" the mayor praised. A pleased, purring sound emanated from deep within Otogi's chest, momentarily startling Ryou.

Otogi moved quickly, bringing Yugi next, and then Marik. As soon as all three humans had been safely transported and were standing huddled together in the office, the Moon's Shadow curled up in Pegasus's chair, arms and legs wrapped comfortably around his body in a way that reminded Ryou of a cat settling in for a nap.

Pegasus cast another smile towards Otogi. "Once again, excellent work, Ryuji. Now, then," he turned his gaze back to window, jerking his head to gesture the humans over. "Come take a look out here."

The three humans walked over to stand beside their two-faced friend, following his gaze out the window, peering out from the safety behind the blinds. The crowd of monsters looked about the same from this angle, packed together and lining the streets. But, presently, it became clear what it was exactly that they were all looking at. Further down the street, Ryou could see what appeared to be some sort of parade or procession. It looked like a platform of some kind was being carried through the streets. At first, Ryou thought it was some sort of parade float, but, when he looked again, he could see someone sitting on the platform, reclining comfortably in a chair.

Marik's jaw went a little slack. "Is that an Egyptian palanquin?"

Pegasus just smiled.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- Atem is nothing if not dramatic.**

 **\- ... I don't really have any notes for this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it, though! ^_^**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: the Beginning of Another Journey

written 10/19/2018 – 11/10/2018

published 11/22/2018

word count: 2,180

* * *

 _Our man [Atem] is king of the [Shadow Realm]_

 _Everyone hail to the [shadow] king – NOW!_

* * *

"Presenting his great royal highness..." The announcer's voice rang out, filling the small mayoral office. The announcer, a man with a jackal head, gestured grandly to the open door behind him, where Marik could see a grand figure descending from the palanquin. "The lord of the Shadow Realm and king of the Hollow World, Pharoah Dakn Zil!"

Marik frowned. He had no idea what that name meant, but it sounded vaguely Arabic to his ears. Like the words his parents used to use when they wanted to have a private conversation in a public setting, and they would speak in their native tongue that he had never taken the time to learn.

"'Zeal?'" Yugi repeated in a whisper. Ryou shrugged in answer.

Otogi slid between the humans, quickly explaining in a low hiss. "It means 'Dark Shadow.' We're not supposed to call the king by his proper name unless he's given us express permission to do so." He rolled his eyes. "Pegasus has known the king since he was a child, so he gets away with it."

The grand figure entered the door, giving Marik a clear view of the kingly monster for the first time. To his surprise, up close he could tell that the figure wasn't near as tall as it had seemed from a distance; rather, the king didn't look too much taller than Yugi, putting him at a shorter height than Mark or even Ryou, and making him significantly smaller than most of the other monsters Marik and the others had encountered. The figure wore a golden death mask, concealing his face from view, while the rest of his body was hidden by long robes and tightly-wrapped linen strips. Everything about the figure made Marik think of an Egyptian mummy, and the human couldn't help but be a little intrigued.

"Greetings, your unholiness." Pegasus bowed, bending himself at the waist. Raising himself again, he gestured grandly to Marik and the others. "These are our mortal guests I wrote to you about."

The royal figure looked over the humans. With his face hidden behind that mask, it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. The only holes in the mask were small, cut out to represent the pupils of the decorate eyes that were shaped into the mask, and Marik found himself wanting to look through those holes in an attempt to see what the monster beneath may have looked like.

A few moments passed by in silence. Then, with an eyebrow twitching in irritation, Pegasus smiled forcibly. "My lord?"

The king jumped a little, his head reeling just enough to be noticeable. Then, he laughed, his voice sounding embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare at you three like that. I'm just not used to seeing mortals up close. Or, at all, actually."

"That's okay!" Yugi cut in awkwardly before Pegasus could say anything. "We're, uh, not exactly used to monsters either!"

The king looked at Yugi in such a way that made Marik think he must have been smiling under his golden mask. "Even so, I must apologize. I suppose you know who I am, but now I would like to learn your names as well."

Yugi nodded. "My name is Yugi. These are my friends, Ryou and Marik. It's, ah, a pleasure to meet you."

"Believe me, the pleasure is all mine."

.

.

.

The king was given a seat across from where the humans sat, and he spent some time listening to their story. The humans made sure to truncate their story significantly, not wanting to go into too many details for the time being, but they were happy to tell him the basics of how they had come to be in his world and what had transpired since their arrival.

Marik had worried that the king of this land may see them as troublesome intruders, people who had come to his country without permission, or perhaps even view them as terrorists or something along those lines. But, it seemed that the more the humans talked about their past few days, the more intrigued the king was.

The mayor's office was even more cramped than it was before. The king sat in Pegasus's chair at the desk, while Marik, Yugi, and Ryou sat in seat across from him. Pegasus, Kaiba, and two more of the king's dog-headed guards stood on either side of the monstrous ruler, while Otogi, Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu were all crowded behind the humans, squeezed in between one another and the wall they stood in front of. Marik wondered briefly where Mokuba and the other two children had gotten off to, but decided it was probably better that they weren't here. The office was crowded enough without that particular trio.

"... Well!" The king finally said after their story was finished. His face was hidden, but his voice sounded duly impressed. "I find your story to be most enlightening, friend mortals. Many of my subjects are led to believe that humans such as yourselves are lesser beings – they are physically weaker, easily frightened, and live shorter spans of time – but, if the three of you are any sort of a fair example of Surface World dwellers, this is clearly not the truth at all!"

His eyes twinkled from behind the small pupil-sized holes of the death mask, and he chuckled, sounding very much like an amused young adult, no older than Marik or the others. "In fact, I'd say the three of you sound like action hero protagonists from a story someone wrote!"

Marik frowned, irritated by the light compliment. "But we're not heroes, and this isn't an action novel. By and large, your subjects view us as a food source or easily discarded toys, and we've had to fight for our lives against them. My _deepest apologies_..." he growled, "but I fail to see the near-death experiences suffered by myself and my friends as being anything like an amusing work of fiction."

The royal guards all tensed up at the human's hostile tone, but the king only nodded.

"You're right, of course," the king told him, voice dropping to become deeper and much more serious. "Please accept my apologies – I did not mean to offend you with my words."

"No, no, it's fine!" Yugi cut in, holding his hands up in a pacifying manner and waving them around frantically. He cast Marik a sharp look, one that Marik was more than happy to return. "My friend here is in a bad mood today, and if anything _he_ should apologize for how _rude_ he's being."

Marik glared at his Asian friend for a moment before deflating a bit against his chair. "... Whatever."

"Really, it's alright." The king spoke again, causing the humans to turn back to look at him. "I am clearly in the wrong for offending your friend. I'm not above making mistakes, you know."

He turned to Marik. "Please accept my sincerest apologies, and believe me when I say I did not intend to trivialize your experiences."

The words stalled Marik for a minute, and it took him a bit to respond. "That's alright. I overreacted. I just didn't like that comparison."

"Understood. Now then," the king straightened his shoulders, and Marik got the impression that he was smiling. "I have a proposition for the three of you."

Yugi perked up. "Oh?"

"Yes. If your wish is to return to the Surface World, I will have my most powerful magicians look into a way to get the three of you safely home. And, while they are working on that, it would be my pleasure if the three of you would stay in my palace as my guests."

Immediately, Marik wondered if there was a string attached to this offer, and, if so, what it was. He exchanged a look with Ryou and Yugi, shrugging one of his shoulders.

After the other two exchanged a look, Yugi turned back to the king of the Hollow World, nodding. "Alright. We accept."

The young Japanese American held out his hand, clearly intending to shake it with the ruler across from him. But, to the surprise of several of the room inhabitants, the king responding by slipping his mask up a bit, just enough to reveal dark skin and smooth lips. He took Yugi's hand in his own and raised it to his face, kissing the fingertips.

"I'll be looking forward to it," the king murmured. His mask slid back into place and he rose to his feet. He continued speaking in his regal voice as he moved to door, his guards nipping at his feet like dogs. "I'll have a carriage prepared for your transport. It's been a pleasure to meet all of you."

"You too," Ryou said automatically, his voice laced with surprise and confusion. Beside him, Yugi nodded his head mechanically.

The office door fell closed behind the young king and his guards. And, when Marik turned to look at his friend, Yugi was staring down at his hand in surprise, a heavy blush having taken over his face.

"He always was a bit of an impulsive boy, I'm afraid." Pegasus sighed. His angry face was showing, lips pursed into an annoyed sneer. "And much too easily turned by a pretty face, if you ask me."

Marik turned to Kaiba and Otogi and the others. "I gather hand-kissing isn't a customary thing your king does, then?"

Anzu was the one who answered him. "Nope! Being kissed by the king when you are not a member of his immediate family generally means one of two things – one, that he is performing a ceremonial blessing on you, and two, that he intends to pursue a courtship with you." She giggled, and the flowers blooming on her vines grew with pleasure. "Either way, it looks like he's sweet on you, Yugi!"

An indiscernible look crossed over Yugi's face and he put his head in his hands in embarrassment. Jou and Ryou both leaned closer to him, patting him comfortingly on the shoulders.

"A handsome, kind-hearted king of a world of monsters appears to have taken a romantic interest in you," Ryou said softly, his voice full of humor as he teased his friend. "Yugi, you never told me you were the protagonist of a comic series!"

"Oh my _god_ shut up, Ryou!"

Before anyone could say anything else, the office door opened again, a royal guard standing in the doorway. "The mortals' transport is ready."

.

.

.

The transport the humans were being provided with turned out to be an elaborate enclosed carriage drawn by what appeared to be an animal of some kind. The creatures looked a bit like horses, but with eyes that rolled back into their heads, long tongues that lolled from their mouths, and enormous fangs that dripped a vile green liquid. The carriage had screened windows around the compartment, allowing the passengers to see out, but preventing anyone from seeing in.

A dog-headed servant held open the door, and Marik could see the king of the Hollow World already seated inside, apparently waiting for them.

"Good luck, guys!" Anzu smiled widely at the three humans. Her gaze landed on Yugi, and she lowered her voice. "If we ever see each other again, I want to know everything about being courted by the king."

Yugi looked aghast, much to the gargoyle's amusement.

"Oh!" As if suddenly remembering, Ryou moved to take off that godawful coat he'd been wearing, carefully folding it over his arm and holding it out to Kaiba. "This is Bakura's coat. I don't suppose you could get it returned to him for me?"

Kaiba's upper lip curled in distaste, but he took the coat anyway. "I'll see what I can do."

Marik grinned a bit before clearing his throat, addressing the collection of monsters before him. "Thanks for all your help. We really appreciate it."

"That's quite alright." Pegasus gave them a soft look. He raised his hand in the air, holding it still instead of waving it. "Farewell, mortals, and safe travels."

"G'bye, you three!" Jou called from where he stood with Honda, Anzu, and Otogi. The four younger monsters waved their hands wildly. "And good luck!"

"Good-bye! And thanks again!"

And with that, the humans climbed into the carriage, where the three of them sat side by side on one of the bench seats of the compartment. The king sat alone across from them, his legs crossed, his hands resting on his knees.

"Are you ready?" the king asked. When the humans nodded, he reached for a rope hanging from the compartment ceiling, pulling it to signal the driver to move. The king's eyes sparkled as the carriage began to move down the street, and Marik could see how curious the young ruler really was.

"So," the king began, leaning forward and looking at the humans intently. "Tell me more about the Surface World."

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- My version of Atem is a drama king with no impulse control whatsoever. Someone please get control of this boy king.**

 **\- Since we know Takahashi took a lot of inspiration for Atem's character from the discovery of Pharaoh Tutankamon's tomb, I kept that tradition by giving Atem a death mask to match that of King Tut. As a king, Atem is intended to be treated almost like a god and shrouded in mystery, so no one is allowed to say his real name or even see his real face.**

 **\- I made too many meta jokes in this chapter and I apologize. I'm not removing them, though.**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Royal Hospitality

written 11/11/2018 – 1/9/2019

published 4/6/2019

word count: 2,076

* * *

 _It's our town_

 _Everybody scream_

 _In our town of Halloween_

* * *

It didn't take nearly as long as Yugi thought it would to reach the capital city. After what only felt like an hour or so, their carriage began to make its way down winding roads that spread themselves between tall buildings.

Time passed quickly while talking with the king of the Hollow World. He wasn't any older than Yugi and the others, despite his title sounding like it belonged to an old man, and he was energetic and eager and curious about the strangers and their world. Even so, Yugi couldn't help but feel that it might have been a little easier to talk to the young ruler if he didn't wear a mask that hid his entire face from view.

The king took them to his palace. He explained that he'd already sent a servant ahead of them to alert the royal magicians, so they should be waiting for the king and the humans when they arrived.

"What do you mean exactly when you say 'magician?'" Yugi was intrigued to learn that magic was a real thing in this world, even though such a thing really shouldn't have surprised him at this point, and he couldn't help but ask for more information. "Are they witches or something?"

"Something like that. Some of them are witches, but that's not what makes them special." There was a hint of pride in the king's voice. "The magicians of my court have dedicated their lives to studying the dark arts, and they are all very powerful and formidable Black Magicians in their own rights. If anyone in this land could return the three of you to your home, it would be them.

"And," he continued. "While my magicians are working on sending you home, I can promise you that you will be kept safe in my palace, and you will be provided with anything you may need."

Ryou smiled. "That's very generous of you, your highness. Thank you."

"Oh no, it's no trouble. Besides," the young ruler's eyes lit on Yugi for a moment. And, was it Yugi's imagination, or was there a strange twinkle in them? "Talking with you has not dulled my intrigue for those who dwell in the Surface World. Especially those who successfully make into the Hollow World."

Something about the way he was looking at him made Yugi sit up straighter. He turned pointedly to look out the window, aware of how warm his cheeks were feeling.

Part of Yugi was flattered by the idea of this young king with the smooth voice displaying such a personal interest in him. Why shouldn't he be? But, even so, the other part of him hoped he was reading the signs wrong, and that the monstrous king wasn't interested in him at all.

"So," Marik interjected, surprising everyone. He'd been quiet for most of the ride, but now he was looking intently at their host. "I can't quite get over the fact that you look like the mummy of an Egyptian pharaoh. Any particular reason why?"

"My family is of a monster type whose bodies are largely composed of ash and sand." The king raised his hand, giving it a little shake in the air. To the humans' surprise, a grainy substance escaped from the tightly-bound body linens, like a powder in the air. "Our bodies aren't as strong or as solid as most species, and we keep ourselves bound together from childhood. But, instead of binding our faces, we generally wear masks." He tapped the golden plate that hid his face from view.

"But why does it look like King Tut's death mask?"

When he answered, the king's voice sounded amused. "Where do you think your ancestors got the idea? Surely even the ancient cultures of your world saw monsters in the shadows every once in awhile?"

The carriage suddenly stopped then, and the door was thrown open, the dim light that passed for sunshine in this world catching the passengers off guard.

"We have arrived, your darkness," announced the dog-headed servant holding the door open.

The palace was a grand building that sprawled out across a vast estate, built up of smaller buildings that surrounded one large, prominent central building. Alabaster pillars and marble statues decorated the doors and walkways, but the buildings themselves seemed to be made of sand and stone. The smaller buildings were shaped like squares and rectangles, connecting together like assorted children's toy blocks, while the central building was shaped almost like a pyramid – only almost, because the triangular structure seemed to lean to the side as it rose into the air, before turning and curving back in on itself before reaching its uppermost point. Briefly, Yugi wondered if the central building was supposed to look like a royal tomb or a crescent moon, and he found it hard to make up his mind.

There were several figures standing out front of the estate. Yugi counted six in total. They didn't seem to be part of the class of servants, judging from their dignified stances and their differing attire. From the way they were watching the arriving carriage, they were very clearly waiting for the king and the human visitors.

"Welcome home, Lord of Darkness," one of the figures greeted at the king descended from the carriage. Moving almost as one, five of the figures all bowed deeply at their waists, their bodies forming unnaturally sharp angles. The sixth figure, who leaned against a walking stick, simply bowed his head in the king's direction.

"Thank you. You may rise." The king turned back to the humans momentarily, waiting until they had all three exited the carriage before speaking again. "These are the Surface Dwellers who have mistakenly trespassed on our lands. They are to be treated with care and respect during their stay." He looked pointedly at the six figures. "You are the strongest magicians in the lands. If anyone can conceive of a way to return our guests to the Surface World, it will be you."

Without waiting for an answer, he turned back to the humans. "These are my Dark Magicians. You will be under their care during your stay in my palace."

"But, my lord," one of the magicians tried to interject – a tall, soft-spoken man with blue skin and a pointed hat that was shaped almost like the central palace building. "What you're asking of us is something that has never been attempted before! You're asking us to defy the very laws of nature itself."

"I am no stranger to the dark arts, Mahad, and I _do_ understand what I'm asking of you. But," the king's voice took on a less commanding sound as he continued. "Isn't breaking nature's guidelines the very purpose for magic in the first place?"

"... Perhaps," the blue-skinned magician finally relented.

The remaining magicians all repeated his words, murmuring their assent. Except for one magician. The sixth one with the walking stick. He seemed to have vanished into thin air while Mahad and the king spoke, and it wasn't until just now that Yugi realized he was gone.

Someone – or, _something?_ \- approached behind Yugi, Ryou, and Marik suddenly, and a gentle hand came to land on the king's shoulder. To the humans' surprise, it was the sixth magician. Up close, Yugi could see that it was an elderly man, wrapped tightly in bandages in much the same way the king was.

"Atem," the old magician spoke from behind a cloth mask, but his voice reminded Yugi of his grandfather. "When are you going to introduce your new friends?"

"I was getting to it, Siamun." Clearing his throat, the king held out a hand to the humans. "These are Marik, Yugi, and Ryou. And this..." His hand moved toward the magicians. "Is Mahad, Mana, Isis, Shada, and Karim." His hand fell as he looked toward the elderly magician beside him. "And you've already met Siamun."

With a slight smile on her face, the magician called Isis cleared her throat. "Perhaps we should take this conversation inside?"

.

.

.

"You'll have to forgive the king and Master Siamun," Isis was saying. "Our young lord was primarily raised by Siamun since infancy, and they are closer to one another than to anyone else."

They had moved into one of the smaller, rectangular buildings, and were currently seated in what looked to be an entertaining room of some sort. The floor of the room was covered with plush rugs of varying sizes and designs, and several flame-lit lanterns hung from the ceiling, washing the room in a gentle glow. Friezes were carved into the stone walls around them, depicting a scene that looked like the changing of seasons, interrupted occasionally by small alcoves that held decorative urns. A pedestal stood in the middle of the room, where a bowl of perfume was left open, its scent filling the room.

"That's alright," Ryou said politely. He was seated beside Yugi, along with Marik, on one of the many rugs that littered the floor. They knelt on their knees beside each other, while the five magicians knelt across from them. The king and the elderly magician had both vanished, leaving Yugi to wonder where they had gone.

Isis reminded Yugi of a bird, with feathers on her face and wings on her back. To her left was Shada, a lizard-man of some kind, and then Karim, a wolf-man. On Isis's right was Mahad, and beside him was Mana, a green-skinned woman with a pointed hat like Mahad's. She reminded Yugi remarkably of a cartoon witch, and he wondered if that's what she and Mahad were.

"Asss you already know, sssending you three back to the Sssurface World would involve creating a Riffft between our worldsss." Shada's forked tongue flicked out of his mouth as he spoke. His eyes shifted between the humans. "How muccch have you learned about Rifffts already?"

"We understand that they open naturally," Marik began. "And that they are only open for a short period of time, in very specific areas."

"Correct." Standing up, Shada moved to stand at one of the walls, pointing to the frieze that adorned it. "Thisss image ssshowcassses our Damp Ssseason, when the atmosssphere is so filled with moisssture that it can be easssily broken."

Karim added to the explanation. "Think of our atmosphere like a creature's skin – under the right conditions, an external force can burst through, creating open wounds. But, given enough time, the skin can regrow itself, closing up the wounds and sealing itself once more."

Shada nodded. "Our atmosssphere can be punctured, under the right conditionsss, but then it repairsss itssself again, filling in all of the holesss. This is a natural phhhenomena, and not one that is generally interfffered with."

The idea of comparing the actual sky to the skin of a living creature made Yugi's stomach twist unpleasantly. Not for the first time since coming here, he wondered why the Hollow World functioned the way it did.

Ryou spoke up, his voice curious. "We were told that another human came here not too long ago, a woman. Is this true?"

"Yeah," Marik added. "And you couldn't open a Rift for her then?"

"We offered to try," Mahad explained. "But she turned it down."

Mana nodded beside him. "She said her brother was dead, and without him she felt that she had no home to go back to. So she chose to stay here, instead." She smiled suddenly. "She actually works in the palace, so you'll probably meet her at some point. She's very nice! Her name is-"

Before the witch could finish her sentence, the heavy door to the room swung open, revealing the king and Siamun on the other side. A servant followed behind at Siamun's heels, carrying a stack of books.

"We stopped at the royal library," the king explained. "Siamun wanted to pool all our writings about Rifts."

"There is no such thing as having too much information," the elderly magician said, wagging his finger like a school teacher in a comical fashion.

"And now-" The king turned back to the humans. His eyes locked with Yugi's for a second, and Yugi could see them twinkle strangely. "-Allow me to show you around."

Yugi stared back into his eyes, and swallowed.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- For a clear idea of what Atem looks like in this story, I recommend looking up images of either the mummy of King Tutankhamon from Ancient Egypt or Prince Abidos from "YGO: GX."**

 **\- The palace's strange shape (somewhere between a pyramid and crescent moon) is a reference to those weird curly hills that Jack Skellington likes to climb up on "the Nightmare Before Christmas."**

 **\- As of today (April 6, 2019), I have finished writing the entire story for this fic. (*excited cheering comes from my own direction*) I'll be spending some time editing and uploading the rest of the chapters, hopefully in big enough chunks that you guys can binge-read.**

 **\- I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far, and I hope you continue to do so! ^_^**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: In The Dark of The Night

written 3/4/2019 – 3/13/2019

published 4/6/2019

word count: 2,531

* * *

 _Aren't you scared?_

 _Well, that's just fine_

* * *

Mana came along with them, skipping and bouncing along as the others walked. She pointed out things as they walked like a bubbly tour guide.

"Those doors lead to the palace courtyard," she was explaining, pointing by using a bejeweled stick of some kind that Ryou could only assume to be a wand. Turning suddenly, she pointed off down another hallway. "And that leads to the library. It's a fun place – if you _like_ old, musty books!"

"Mana, please..." The king's voice had a very 'you're-trying-my-patience' sound to it. He opened the door to the courtyard, allowing shafts of oddly bright light to enter the golden hallway. "Come on. Let's show them the garden first."

Yugi walked through the doors first, and Ryou could hear him inhale sharply. And, as soon as he poked his head through the doorway, the albino could see why.

"The plants..." His eyes trailed all over the enclosed courtyard, gaping at the vibrant, _green_ leaves that spouted out everywhere. Rose bushes! Apple trees! Was that a pear tree?! "Are they alive?"

The king nodded, his voice full of pride when he spoke. "The soil is imported. Most of the land in the Hollow World doesn't contain the nutrients to grow plants that you would recognize, but this soil is harvested from the Surface World and has many magical spells placed around it, allowing plants to grow and thrive as soon as they are planted into the ground."

A skeletal bird landed on a tree branch and began singing. The image made Ryou's face split into a wide smile.

The king led the three humans along the path that wound through the courtyard, Mana following behind. They passed by many plants, some familiar and some not, as well as many decorative pieces. There were bird baths and feeders scattered here and there, the skeletal birds and fuzzy black bats that were using them scattering as the people walked through. Statues of weeping angels popped up here and there, and a streaming koi pond looped through the courtyard like a small, man-made river.

"Careful of the fish," Mana warned them when Ryou stopped to take a closer look. She made a 'chomping' motion with her hand. "They bite."

Even as she said that, an eerily black fish jumped out of the water, all eyes and teeth and snapping its impressive jaws at the humans. Before any of them could react in self-defense, Mana had slammed her wand down onto the fish's head, an oddly metallic 'thunk' filling the air as it came into contact.

"Down, boy!" She told the fish as if she were scolding a misbehaved dog. "Bad fishy!"

After a beat, Marik let out a bark of nervous laughter. "That's not something you usually see in koi ponds."

"It's an iok pond, actually," the king explained. "A decorative fish, but not the kind you want to get your fingers too close to."

After exhausting the palace courtyard, the humans were led down the hall to the library. Although Ryou had a passive interest in seeing a place of books and learning, he couldn't help but agree with Mana's earlier statement when he looked in through the open doorway.

The library seemed to be one large room, stretching out in several directions at once, with nothing but shelves and tables, all stuffed to their breaking points with books and scrolls and papers. Staircases cropped up here and there, the stairs wrapping in circles around large stone pillars that had to have been at least ten feet or three meters in diameter. A second floor balcony was on the other end of the staircases, with more shelves and more tables and more books and scrolls. Even in the dim light, Ryou could see the particles of dust that wafted through the air, and just looking into the room made his nose twitch.

Several creatures were making use of the library already, as Ryou followed the others in. A few of them were dressed in the same telling robes as the royal magicians they had met earlier, but wore different colors.

"They're students," Mana whispered. "Apprentice magicians. Royal magicians wear blue robes, and apprentice magicians wear white."

The more prominent creature that could be seen in the library was something Ryou couldn't begin to recognize. They crawled up and down the bookcases like spiders, their long, snake-like bodies twisting in ways that made Ryou squirm uncomfortably. They moved as though their entire body was made of rubber, or as if every bone in their body were made up of spinal vertebrae. They all had big gaping eyes, lolling tongues, and seemed to have spiderwebs woven into their hair and clothing.

One of these creatures approached the group when the king beckoned him over. This one was very tall, with dark skin and darker eyes, and a long ponytail wrapped in spider silk.

"This is Odion Rishid," the king explained. "He is my chief Tome Keeper."

Yugi blinked. "'Tome Keeper?'"

"He means librarian." Mana smiled when the king shot her a look.

The creature known as Rishid bowed his head to the humans. "Welcome to the palace library. Should you ever need anything, I would be happy to help you."

Marik tilted his head curiously. "So what sort of creature are you? We haven't met anyone like you, yet."

Ryou had the urge to strangle Marik – you couldn't just ask someone what they were right after meeting them, that's _rude!_ \- but Rishid only smiled.

"We are called Book Wyrms," he explained. "Where there are books, so are we."

"Even on the Surface World?"

Rishid's smile widened in an eerie fashion. " _Especially_ on the Surface World." Then it was his turn to cast a curious look on Marik. "You look like someone I know. One of my assistants..."

One of the apprentice magicians broke in just then, cutting off his train of thought. "Keeper Rishid, someone tore a page from the Book of the Moon and I can't find it!"

Rishid raised his eyebrows, then turned and gave the others an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have something to attend to. If you'll please excuse me..."

And just like that, the head Tome Keeper was gone, leaving the scent of dust and ink and paper behind him.

.

.

.

Eventually, their tour ended. Food was provided for the humans to eat, and then the king showed the humans to their rooms. He led them to a series of doors, where he opened three of them in succession, allowing the humans to look inside.

"I'm afraid they are rather plain. My palace may look decadent on the outside, but most of it is built for work, not for comfort."

The rooms were still fairly sizeable, and rectangular in shape, with large beds and plush sofas acting as the center pieces. Each room had a king-sized bed on one end, a side table on each side of the bed, and an L-shaped sofa at the other end. The furniture coverings were white, and fuzzy white rugs filled the empty floor space. Tall, grey vases sat in the corners, with tall sticks and dead flowers poking out of them. The far walls of the rooms, the wall beside the bed, was one big window, with silken white curtains hanging across. Everything about the décor was painfully minimalist.

The rooms were spaced evenly apart, in a way that suggested there was something between the rooms. Ryou realized why it was when the king pointed in through a doorway, his fingers trained on two doors on the left side of the room.

"The door on the left is a closet, and the one of the right is a private restroom." He turned back to the humans. "You may stay in whichever room you like, it matters little. But I hope you three have a restful night, and I will see you again tomorrow."

And, as though he had never been there, the king of the Hollow World vanished.

As soon as he was gone, Yugi let out an exaggerated shudder. "Is it just me, or does the king give you guys goosebumps, too?"

Ryou couldn't help but tease his friend. "'Goosebumps?' You mean the kind you get when you _like_ someone? That's so _cute,_ Yugi!"

"RYOU!"

Laughing, the albino jumped behind one of the doors, slamming it shut just as Yugi charged at him.

.

.

.

Ryou fell asleep in the big, soft, warm bed, but it wasn't a restful sleep like the king had bid him. Instead, Ryou tossed and turned during the night, awful images plaguing his mind.

"Hey now, little human." An oddly familiar voice permeated his dream, drawing him out of his slumber. "Better wake up before you go too far."

The human's pink eyes snapped open. He stared up into the darkness for a moment, unseeing. He felt hands – many hands – on him and around him, holding him steady. He became aware of someone leaning over him, with six eyes staring down at him even as he was staring up.

"You're awake," Bakura the Bed Bug observed. His hands moved away, giving the human his space back. "Good."

Ryou opened and closed his mouth and tried to use his voice, but couldn't get any coherent words out at first. When his mouth was finally awake enough to speak, he continued to stare at Bakura. "Why are you here?"

"Nice to see you again, too." The beetle grinned slightly. "I was looking for a human with nightmares to feed on. Found you." His grin fading, he raised a hand to poke at Ryou's face. His fingertip slid gingerly across the skin below Ryou's eye, wiping away liquid. "You were crying in your sleep."

Ryou frowned, turning his head away. "Did you eat it? The nightmare I was having?"

The beetle grinned broadly. "Of course I did!" He licked his upper lip. "You have such deliciously awful dreams."

Ryou shivered. He already suspected he needed therapy, and this whole scenario only told him just how right he was. "How did you get in here, anyway?"

"I'm a Bed Bug, stupid. I came in under the bed."

"... You can do that?"

"How did you think I found sleeping humans?" Not waiting for an answer, Bakura tilted his head, looking around the room. "So what is this place?"

"It's a guest room at the royal palace."

"The palace, huh?" Bakura seemed suitably impressed. "Moving up in the world, are you?"

Ryou shrugged. He moved to sit up, bending his knees and wrapping his arms around his legs, resting his chin on his knees. "Mayor Pegasus sent us to the king, and the king's magicians are working on a way to get us home."

"You and your friends are working really hard to get home." Bakura gave him a sidelong look. "There must be something back there you really miss, huh?"

"Eh?"

"Well, I assume you wouldn't be working so hard to get home unless there was someone or something you really cared about waiting there for you."

Ryou frowned to himself as the beetle's words sunk in. Bakura was right; why go home if there was nothing waiting for him there? He didn't have a home or a family, or even a job, or a... boyfriend, as hard as it was to use that particular word, even in his own mind.

"It's not that I have anything waiting there for me," he began slowly, choosing his words carefully. "But I'm not sure how I feel about staying here. And besides, Yugi is pretty intent on going back to the Surface World, and I don't know that I could be happy if he and I weren't together."

"You humans have a lot of memory fragments in your dreams," Bakura said. His voice sounded oddly reverent, for him. "I don't know what they are or what they mean when I see them, but I recognize when something is particularly meaningful. You especially dream about your family and your little friend with all the hair."

That description made Ryou smile. "That would be Yugi. We've known each other for a long time. Since we were kids."

"Your dream last night made it seem like you were much more than friends."

Ryou frowned, scattered memories of his dream slowly coming back to him. "Oh... It was _that_ dream."

He held up his hands defeatedly when Bakura gave him an exasperated look. "I have a lot of repeating dreams, okay?" He looked down at his lap. "Anyway, that dream has pieces of a really specific memory in it, from when Yugi and I were younger. We, um, we were dating back then."

For some reason, Bakura grinned, his mandibles stretching away from his mouth. "I wondered if you swung that way."

"Well, I'm, ah, into guys?" Ryou could feel how hot his face was. He frowned. "That memory is from the night my father found out about us. He ... wasn't happy."

He'd thrown them out onto the streets was what had happened, but Ryou didn't want to say that out loud.

"So," Bakura began, causing Ryou to look up at him. He was still grinning. "You're not dating anyone now, are you?"

"Well, no."

"Good." The Bed Bug's face was suddenly closer to his. Ryou had to tilt his head back to look up him, and he could feel the beetle's cold breath on his face, contrasting with his own warm exhales. The beetle's eyes narrowed. "So it's okay if I do _this_ , then?"

His mouth was suddenly pressed against Ryou's, catching the human off guard. There was more teeth in this kiss than any Ryou had ever experienced, the sharp edges clipping against his own teeth and nipping his lips, but that didn't make it bad by any means. Instead, the kiss was surprisingly warm and almost sweet, Bakura's many arms wrapping around Ryou as it continued. His mandibles rubbed against Ryou's cheeks, too far away to cause any damage but close enough to be irritating.

Ryou's lips tingled as the monster pulled away, and couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, you could certainly do that. Um, you could do it again, if you wanted to."

The words were barely out of his mouth when the second kiss came, this one softer and gentler and sweeter. It pushed the human backwards onto the bed, and he just lay there for a minute, his legs tucked up on either side of Bakura's waist, the Bed Bug's hands running through the human's hair.

Bakura shifted the kiss a bit, targeting Ryou's lower lip, which he gently sucked at. He began biting into Ryou's lip, and Ryou felt that sensation of being sedated pass through him, his mind suddenly fogged by drowsiness.

Bakura pressed one last kiss to Ryou's temple, and Ryou could feel him smirking. "Good night, sleep tight..."

Smiling softly, Ryou finished the sentence before being overcome by sleep. "... please let the Bed Bugs bite."

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- The title for this chapter is taken from the villain Rasputin's song from the animated movie "Anastasia." I've never actually seen the movie, but my sister has and she sings that song often enough that I know some of the words.**

 **\- The weeping angel statues in the palace courtyard are more of a reference to statues that you'll sometimes see in church cemeteries (not sure if that's more of a North American thing or a European thing). Sorry to anyone who thought it was going to be a "Doctor Who" reference, but that wasn't my original intention.**

 **\- The iok fish probably look like the Chain Chomp thing from the Mario games. Also the word 'iok' is just 'koi' backwards because I didn't want to really come up with a name for the species of fish.**

 **\- I couldn't decide whether to call him "Rishid" (his original, proper name) or "Odion" (the name I usually call him myself) so he's both.**

 **\- 'Tome Keeper,' get it? Like 'Tomb Keeper?'**

 **\- While 'Book Wyrm' is a reference to the term 'bookworm' and is pronounced the same way, it's also a reference to the wyrms of some European myths, which were enormous snake- or worm-like monsters.**

 **\- Just for clarification: in this story, Ryou is homosexual, Yugi is bisexual, and Marik is pansexual.**

 **\- I don't care if their relationship moves "too sudden, too quickly." I'm writing a dumb fanfic, not actual relationship advice, and my impatient self wanted Tendershipping.**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: A Tearful Reunion

written 3/7/2019 – 3/8/2019

published 4/6/2019

word count: 2,373

* * *

 _I am the one hiding under your stairs_

 _Fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair_

* * *

It was almost midmorning when Marik finally woke up, the pale sunlight streaming in through the window and bathing his dark face. In the warm, soft bed, the Middle Easterner couldn't remember the last time he had slept so well, aside from at Kisara's place. Rolling over, he slowly rose to his feet, blinking in the light and shaking out the tangled mess his hair had become.

The bathroom wasn't anything special – a small sink with some counter space and an old style of toilet were the main features. But it did also have a combined bathtub and shower, complete with sample bottles of soap and shampoo, and that was definitely something that called to Marik when he awoke. He had never stayed in a hotel, but he imagined it to be a little like this.

He stripped down and stepped into the shower. His entire body relaxed as he felt the warm water run down over him. As he set his fingers to work with the shampoo, working through all the knots of his hair, the heat and the water worked through the stress knots of his body.

When he was finished, Marik looked over his reflection in the small, bronze mirror that hung over the sink. He'd always worn makeup in high school, doing his best to hide his acne and injuries from home, but he hadn't had access to that luxury in a long time. It had also been awhile since he'd really taken a good look at his reflection, and, to his surprise, he was pleased to get a good, long look at the man in the mirror. Dark skin shaped into a thin jaw and high cheekbones, with bright fuchsia eyes and plump, pink lips, and a long nose that stretched in between. His light hair was a stark contrast against his face.

"Huh... When did that scrappy little teenager get so handsome?" He could still see how crooked a few of his teeth were when he smiled, but that kind of thing didn't seem quite as bad as it did in high school.

Getting dressed and checking his reflection again, Marik turned to the door and headed out for breakfast.

.

.

.

The palace didn't seem to have an official dining area; the king hadn't been lying when he said that the palace was built for work, not luxury. So, grabbing the toast and apple slices he was provided, Marik decided to wander around for a bit. He eventually ended up at the library.

There weren't too many people in the library during the morning hours, it seemed. A few of the apprentice magicians were sitting at tables and pouring over books. Marik was pretty sure he'd seen a few of them yesterday, making him wonder if they had pulled an all-nighter with their studies. Several of the Book Wyrms were also skittering about, but none of them paid him any mind; instead, they seemed to be focused on rearranging and sorting books. A few Book Wyrms were hunched over a table, where it looked like they were transcribing an old book onto new paper, and one or two were even just standing around reading.

Looking around at the books and scrolls that covered the entire room, Marik couldn't help but smile to himself – he couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so _at home_. The town library had been a safe haven for him as a child, and being around so many books once again gave him that feeling of comfort and security.

He began to wander the aisles, aimlessly looking over the spines of the many, many books. Eventually, he found what appeared to be a history section, and he began pulling out books about the history of the Hollow World. Taking his books, he settled in at his own table, laying them open one by one and pouring over their contents.

Hours passed by, but Marik was too engrossed in his self-assigned education to notice. He was broken out of his reverie by the sound of a clock bell, ringing three times. Mildly alarmed to realize it was three in the afternoon, the young man looked up.

… and found another face staring back at him.

"Um, hi?"

A Book Wyrm was sitting across from him, with dull purple eyes that were staring at him intently. The monster had very unkempt blonde hair, with spiderwebs hanging from it. Thick, soft lips split apart into a toothy smile.

"Hello." The monster's voice was pitched low, seemingly friendly with almost sinister undertones. "I was wondering how long I could sit here without you noticing."

Marik frowned. "How long have you been sitting there?"

"Three hours. You've been in here for five. After two hours, I got bored with just watching you and decided to play a little game." His teeth flashed as his smile widened. "I'd like to get you to look at _me_ the way you've been looking at those books."

For a response, Marik could only manage a flustered "W-what?!"

"You heard me." Now the monster was leaning closer, and Marik could tell that his eyes were actually lavender. "I think you're cute. Wanna go out sometime? Promise I'm a good kisser."

Marik opened and closed his mouth, but couldn't get words to come out quite yet.

"Yamalik!" another voice interrupted. The monster in front of Marik winced as Rishid the Tome Keeper suddenly appeared behind him, glaring down at him angrily. "Why are you bothering library guests?"

The Wyrm, apparently named 'Yamalik,' sneered and looked away, muttering. "I'm only bothering _this_ one..."

Ignoring him, Rishid turned to Marik, smiling apologetically. "I'm very sorry for my brother's behavior. We will leave you alone now."

Without waiting for a response, the older Book Wyrm had grabbed the younger one by the arm and pulled him away.

Marik stared after them for a moment, still processing that entire conversation. After realizing that he'd been in the library for apparently five whole hours, he stood up, moving to leave.

There were more people in the library now, young adult and teenage monsters surrounding tables and filling aisles. They appeared to be studying and doing homework, and were largely broken into groups of two or more.

Trying to avoid a particularly crowded aisle, Marik quickly ducked into the next aisle over, slamming straight into a person carrying a stack of books. Both he and the person he hit fell to the floor, the other person landing with a comical 'squeak.'

Swearing to himself, Marik began to get back up, checking on the other person. "I'm really sorry. Are you alright?"

The person he'd run into was a young female, probably no more than a teenager, but monster ages were hard to tell. Her frizzy reddish-pink hair and wild polka dot outfit let him to know that she was a Faceless Clown like Jounouchi. But, to his alarm, there was something wrong with the clown girl's face – her mask was cracked, the break starting in the middle of the forehead and spreading down across the top half of her face, leaving her eyes completely shattered.

"I'm okay," the girl assured him. She gave him a sweet smile as he helped her up. "Thank you."

"You're sure you're alright? Your mask looks pretty, uh... Well, I think it's seen better days."

"Oh, this?" She pointed to her obscured eyes with a gloved hand. It was weird to see how natural the lower half of her face looked and moved, while the top half looked like shattered plastic. "Don't worry, you didn't cause this. I was in an accident when I was little."

The way she said 'accident' made Marik think she meant a car accident or something similar. Did clowns have clown car accidents?

"I'm sorry to hear that."

She shrugged. "It's not too bad, I guess. I mean, I don't see well at all, but I guess it could have been worse."

Marik bent over, starting to pick up the books he'd knocked out of the girl's hand. "Still a bummer. I'm Marik, by the way."

"Oh! My brother told me about you, and that you'd be coming to Duat. I'm Shizuka, Jounouchi's sister."

"Oh, okay. Nice to meet you then."

One of the books had slid underneath a book cart. The cart was so laden with even more books, Marik wasn't sure he could move it. So he got down on his hands and knees, reaching under for that last book.

Someone else came into the aisle, and a woman's voice began speaking. "There you are, Shizuka! I was worried you'd gotten lost or something."

"Don't worry, I'm fine. I just dropped my books on the way to our tutoring session and this nice man offered to help me." Marik couldn't help but notice that she left out the part where he crashed into her in the first place.

Standing back up, he winked as he handed the stack of books back to Shizuka, who beamed up at him. "Here you are. I think that's all of them."

"Thank you, Marik!" the cute clown girl chirped.

"... Marik?"

Marik turned to the newcomer when she repeated his name, and froze. He'd encountered several monsters over the past several days, and seen creatures whose faces were plucked right out of a child's nightmare, but, for the first time, he truly felt like he was seeing a ghost.

"Ishizu?" he asked. His throat was dry and his body felt cold all over. "Is that really you?"

.

.

.

When long lost family members were reunited on the movies, there was generally a lot of tearful hugging while happy music played in the background. But that wasn't how Marik's reunion with his sister went.

"You ran away?!" Marik hissed angrily. The pair had moved out into the palace hallway so they wouldn't bother anyone in the library, and, once outside, he couldn't hold his rage anymore. "You just left me with that abusive sicko we called a father? I thought you were _dead_ , Ishizu! I thought you _died_! But no, you just ran away and left me, like the useless sister you are!"

"Marik, it wasn't like that!" While not at the same level as her younger brother, Ishizu's ire was still up. "I was going to come back for you. I just didn't know how to take you with me."

"Yeah." Marik's voice was short and clipped. "I'm sure you tried real hard."

His sister huffed. "I _did_. We were teenagers, Marik! I was in high school! I didn't even have a driver's license! What did you want me to do?"

He didn't answer her. It wasn't like anything he said would change what happened.

Ishizu sighed. "And I _did_ come back for you. It took me nearly six years, but I did. But you were gone by that time." She stared hard at the floor. "Father didn't tell me what happened to you. He just said you were gone, and that he didn't need a 'worthless f***ot around anyway.'"

For some reason, that made Marik laugh. "Sounds about right. Boy wears makeup, must be a f**." Though it probably hadn't helped his case any when his father found out about his pansexuality.

"... I was worried he'd done something terrible to you."

"What? Were you afraid he'd finally beaten me to death?" Marik glared at his sister. "You had several opportunities to go to the police or someone about it. But you didn't, did you? You were afraid of what that sicko would do to you if you did."

Her silence answered all of his questions.

He rolled his eyes. "So how did you end up here? Other than 'fell through a Rift.'"

"I went to visit Mother's grave. I tripped and fell into an open hole, and it led me here. I actually landed just outside of the city." She shrugged one shoulder. "The king and his magicians offered to help me but get home, but I decided to stay here. I didn't have anything to go back to. I've been staying with Odion, working in the library."

Marik remembered what Rishid had said about him 'looking familiar,' figuring Rishid had happened to see the similarities between him and his sister.

"... Do you like living with the Book Wyrms?"

To his surprise, Ishizu smiled a bit at that question. "They look strange, but they're nice enough. Especially Odion."

Realization set in, and Marik swore. "You're in love with him."

"... Yes." She changed the subject. "What will you do now? Stay here, or return to the Surface World?"

He narrowed his eyes. "Whatever I choose to do, it won't involve you."

Ishizu inhaled sharply, as though his words hurt her, but then she nodded. She squared her shoulders and turned to walk back into the library, signaling that their conversation was over.

A shape barged past the library doors as they closed, lunging at Marik and pressing him up against a wall. Vaguely, he recognized the shape as Yamalik the Book Wyrm, but didn't have time to react. The Wyrm's lips were suddenly on his in a heated kiss.

Forgetting completely about his sister and his anger at her, Marik felt himself melting into the sudden kiss. He couldn't remember the last time he'd kissed anyone (was it that guy in the alley that one time, or was it that lady coworker?) and he knew for a fact that it had never felt this good before. Yamalik's lips were soft and breathtakingly perfect, and when his tongue came up looking for an entrance, Marik was more than willing to comply.

Marik's hands were clenched around Yamalik's neck and shoulders by the time the kiss ended. The Book Wyrm pulled away suddenly, both he and the human panting for breathe, his long, rubbery arms wrapped around the human.

"See?" the Wyrm asked between breathes, smirking and winking slyly. "Told you I was a good kisser."

Taken aback and unable to contain himself, Marik laughed uproariously, pulling the monster in for another kiss. "Stop talking."

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- I like giving Yami Marik names in my fics that are uniquely his, but still similar to his canon title.**

 **\- The f-word that I censored isn't a bad word into and of itself (it literally just refers to wood kindling) but, since it's being used as a slur in this context, it's not entirely written out.**

 **\- Ishizu isn't a bad person in this story or anything. She's just a person who's made a few bad choices in life.**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: the King and I

written 3/8/2019 – 3/13/2019

published 4/7/2019

words: 2,177

* * *

 _Skeleton Jack might get you in the back_

 _Scream like a banshee_

 _Make you jump out of your skin_

* * *

Yugi slept like a rock that night, waking up bright and early the next morning. Ryou and Marik were both still asleep when he woke up, so he finished washing and drying his hair and decided to head out by himself for a bit.

He _had_ to go see that courtyard again, if he could. He loved plants and had always been envious of the gardens other people could grow, and the fact that these plants could be grown down here in this dismal underworld intrigued him.

There were dog-headed men scattered here and there. This time, Yugi recognized that they weren't actually the servants he had originally thought, but seemed to just be the palace staff, as if the palace were more of an office building that the king's home. Judging from the way they were patrolling the hallways but not getting involved with the actions of anyone else, Yugi realized that they must have been security guards.

But, whatever their job was exactly, they didn't look twice at him as he wandered down the halls, and they didn't stop him when he headed into the courtyard. Once there, Yugi's ears were greeted by the quiet sounds of nature – leaves rustling, water running, and the birds and bats that flew around the area. It was quiet and peaceful, and it made him smile to himself.

He was surprised, however, to realize that he was not alone in this garden sanctuary. He could see another familiar figure kneeling beneath a tree, red-tinged hair and body wrappings alike blowing in the slight breeze, while a golden face mask sat on a bench nearby.

Hesitantly, Yugi began to approach the undead king.

"Good morning, your highness," he greeted when he was standing three feet away from the king.

The king jumped suddenly, evidently startled. His body turned, rising to a standing position as it did so, and lifted both hands in the air. One hand held out a small gardening spade, flecks of soil falling off it as it was held aloft, seemingly in a form of self-defense. The other hand was on the king's face, obscuring most of it from view.

Startled himself, Yugi took a step backwards, holding up both of his hands like he'd been caught by the police.

"Yugi!" The king visibly heaved a sigh of relief as he lowered his spade. "You surprised me. I'm usually alone out here."

"Sorry." Yugi reached over to the bench, gingerly picking up the king's mask and holding it out to him. He watched as the king put it on, seeing a flash of coppery skin and long eyelashes that were soon hidden behind a plate of gold.

Shaking his head slightly, Yugi looked down at where the king had been crouched. "Were you gardening?"

The king looked at him blankly. "Yugi, I am disappointed in you. Do you really think I, king and ruler of a nation, would stoop to such low habits as tilling soil? A task of menial labor that is clearly meant for mere peasants?"

He burst out laughing when Yugi stared at him, confused. "Yes, I'm gardening. This courtyard used to be my mother's garden, and now it is mine."

"Do you like it?"

The king nodded. He knelt back down to where he had been crouched, gesturing for Yugi to join him. The human did so, and the two sat on the ground beside a flower bed, Yugi watching as the king tended to the flowers he'd been planting. Some of the plants seemed to be native to the Hollow World, with withered stems, black leaves that curled inward upon themselves, and flowers that grew long petals shaped like the legs of a spider. But, like he'd noticed the first time he'd seen the courtyard, many of the plants were familiar to him, somehow originating from the Surface World.

"My mother's favorite flowers were lilies," the king said softly. "She liked how tall they grew, and she loved the way they smelled. Whenever I went into her and my father's chambers as a child, they smelled of lilies."

He cupped his fingers delicately around one of the flowers he was planting, the purple petals contrasting strongly against his tan, sandy fingers. "But, my favorites have always been pansies. They're small and colorful, and they are symbolically used to mean 'to remember.'"

Yugi listened quietly. He didn't really understand the emotions behind the king's poetic words, but he could respect them.

The king turned to look at him. "Do you have a favorite flower or anything, Yugi?"

"Um..." Yugi shrugged. "I don't know. I like looking at people's gardens, but I've never really thought about whether I like any plants more than others." He looked around for a minute, his eyes finally landing on a rosebush. "I guess I like roses, especially the red ones. They're pretty, but they have thorns. They're like the punks of flower gardens!"

That made the king laugh again, a low chuckle shaking his body. "I suppose I see your _point_."

Yugi sneered. "Was that a pun?"

"Perhaps."

The two sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, just enjoying the morning atmosphere. It was pretty nice out here, with the morning light and the dew on the ground, the breeze blowing and the birds chirping in the trees.

"Yugi," the king's voice broke into the silence, making the human turn to look at him. "It occurs to me that I haven't introduced myself properly, to you or to the others. So..."

He turned so that he was facing Yugi, somehow managing to maintain a regal appearance despite sitting cross-legged on the ground. He pulled his mask off, and Yugi finally got a good look at the man underneath it.

The king had coppery, sandy skin, the rough texture shimmering in the light. His lips arched into a perfect cupid's bow, drawn up into his sharp nose. He had three eyes on his face; two relatively normal eyes in the spaces were eyes should be, with large, blood red irises, and then a third eye in the center of his forehead. This third eye was different, a dull red in the parts that should have been white, with a golden iris and a pupil that looked purple instead of black.

"I would like to reintroduce myself." The king smiled, the grains of sand that made of his face shifting strangely with the mouth movement. Yugi realized that the king's mouth didn't actually move when he spoke. "My name is Atem, and I am a member of the Sandman species."

"...'Sandman?'" Yugi giggled.

"More specifically, I'm an Illuminator, a Sandman with a Third Eye." He pointed to the eye in his forehead. "I inherited it from my mother, the previous Illuminator. It gives me the ability to read and influence the minds of others. Because of this trait, Sandman Illuminators are nearly always found in or placed into positions of power."

Yugi frowned, a shiver running down his spine as he realized why he could hear the other man's voice without seeing his lips move. "Do you always read people's minds?"

'Have you been reading _my_ mind?' was the question in his head, but he didn't want to voice it out loud.

Atem shook his head, creating a slight rustling noise. "No. It's something I do in situations where I have to, but it's not a practice I tend to engage in, unless it's with other Sandmen. My monster type only speaks through psychic means, but, while I may speak with my mind, I've had many years of training so that I primarily listen with my ears."

He smiled again. "Your personal thoughts are safe, Yugi. But, I _do_ still pick up on overlying emotions. Like, for example-"

Yugi was panicking now, as he realized _exactly_ what sort of feelings the king had to have been sensing from him for the past day and a half. He leaned back instinctively, his hands hitting the ground beneath him, and he crab-walked backwards for about three feet before hitting that stupid bench.

Atem didn't move from where he was sitting, his three eyes trained on Yugi, an amused smile on his face. "-you've been thinking some _very_ flattering things about me, haven't you? In fact, when I first saw you and the others in Pegasus's office yesterday morning, I froze because of how loud your thoughts were." He chuckled, the sound echoing in Yugi's head. "You couldn't see my face, but you were certainly impressed by my body, weren't you? Naughty human!"

Yugi hid his face in his hands. He wished the ground would open up and swallow him all over again! Even if he had to run from the Knights of Fright a second time, that would still be preferable from his current slow, painful death by embarrassment.

He heard Atem stand up, followed by the raspy sound of footsteps against the paved path, the footsteps stopping in front of where he was sitting. A roughly textured hand came to rest on Yugi's head, gently smoothing his hair.

"I think you're very handsome, too, Yugi."

Oh god, now he really _was_ going to die of embarrassment!

.

.

.

When Yugi looked up awhile later, Atem had gone back to his gardening. Yugi watched him gently brush a spider/ladybug hybrid of some sort off of a plant.

"I didn't know there were very many humans who were attracted to the same sex," Atem said conversationally, like their entire interaction in the garden had just been a casual discussion.

Yugi shrugged. "Well, plenty of people feel that way, but, by comparison to the species as a whole, it's a pretty small amount."

The monster king nodded. "I see. Continuing production and keeping species alive is nature's usual way, I suppose. In that respect, it seems humans and monsters aren't so different."

He glanced at Yugi with a grimace. "I'm expected to marry a woman, have children, and pass my throne on to my oldest son. It's the custom."

Yugi tilted his head in confusion. "Do you not like women in that way?"

"Oh no, women are fine. Men are fine. Other genders are fine. I don't really have that kind of distinction in what sort of people I find attractive. I just haven't met anyone I want to marry yet, and I don't want to marry someone solely for the purpose of following a tradition." He frowned. "But, I may not have a choice in the matter."

"What? The king doesn't get to do whatever he wants?"

That brought a laugh out of the Sandman. "Only in stories, I'm afraid. The reality is that we're bound by rules just as much as everyone else – we're just playing different games."

He stood up from his garden work, brushing dirt from his knees. He seemed to be focused on his plants, and didn't even look at Yugi when he spoke. "What about you, Yugi? What sort of people do you like?"

Taken aback, Yugi didn't answer for a moment. What kind of a loaded question was that, anyway? But, since Atem had already addressed his own sexual preferences, Yugi felt inclined to be truthful. "Women, mostly. But also men, especially if they have really nice features."

He let out a small yelp when Atem turned to look at him, smiling mischievously. "Do _I_ have features that you like, Yugi?"

Yugi clambered to his feet and sprinted backwards, putting a few meters of distance between himself and the Sandman. He couldn't move quite fast enough though, because Atem caught up to him in an instant, and Yugi found himself backed against a tree.

"Yugi, please remember that I _am_ a monster," Atem smirked. "The more you run away, the more I want to chase you."

Taking a step back, he glanced up at the sky, as though checking to see what time it was. "Well, the morning is waning and I'm finished in my garden for today. I have a city planning meeting to attend in awhile. You're welcome to enjoy the courtyard for as long as you like, though."

Atem took both of Yugi's hands in his own, pressing something into them as he winked at the human. "I'll see you some other time, Yugi."

With that, he turned, put his mask back on, and swept out of the courtyard, leaving Yugi alone.

The human's thoughts were only interrupted by the birds' singing and unsettling rustle of the leaves in the wind. He looked down at his hands, finding the top of a rose between his fingers, attached to only an inch or two of stem. It was enough that there was a thorn still attached, and it was digging into Yugi's skin, pressing in but not drawing blood. The flower smelled sweet, too sweet, with the perfumic scent filling his nostrils.

"Oh, Yugi..." he whispered to himself. "What have you gotten yourself into?"

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- I've never seen 'the King and I.' Apparently it's a musical.**

 **\- The Sandman is a very Northern European/American mythological being. It's a fairy kind of creature that is supposed to sprinkle magic sand over people to put them to sleep, and is also an strong influence on what kind of dreams the sleeping person has. I feel like most people these days are probably most familiar with this figure through popular songs by the Chordettes and Metallica, and to a lesser degree Dreamworks' "Rise of the Guardians" movie.**

 **\- Illuminati confirmed! (lol)**

 **\- Their favorite flowers are actually symbolic of one another. Like Yugi, pansies are small and soft, with petals that often come in mixtures of black, yellow, and purple; by saying Atem's favorite flower is the pansy, I'm comparing the flower to Yugi. The red roses, meanwhile, are well known in Western culture for representing romantic interest and passion, but their red petals and thorns are also comparable to the spiky red hair that Atem has in this story.**


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Second Meeting

written 3/13/2019 – 3/16/2019

published 4/7/2019

word count: 1,989

* * *

 _Around that corner, man_

 _Hiding in a trash can_

 _Something's waiting there to pounce_

 _And how you'll scream_

* * *

Ryou rubbed at his hair with a towel. He'd just gotten out of the shower and was trying to get rid of all the water that was dripping off of his body. He glanced in the bathroom mirror as he cinched the towel around his waist, soon moving his hands to work on detangling his hair.

He didn't like his reflection. He really never had. It was bad enough that he was an albino, and that he shared many facial features with his father, but his thin frame, his wispy hair, and the deep bags under his eyes didn't do him any favors.

He almost cried out when he felt arms wrap around him from behind him.

"You're so tense," Bakura admonished. He leaned forward to rest his chin on Ryou's shoulder. "Your heart is just going to jump right out of your ribcage one of these days."

Bakura had spent the entire night with Ryou, apparently, sleeping under the bed. When Ryou finally woke up that morning, he'd found his arm hanging off the side of the bed, holding hands with the monster that was lurking beneath him.

"Well maybe you shouldn't sneak up on me like that!"

The Bed Bug gave him an evil smile. "Not a chance. You are way too cute when you're scared."

Ryou wasn't sure whether to take that as a compliment or not, so he decided to ignore the other male.

There was a knock on his bedroom door just then. Panicking slightly, Ryou motioned for Bakura to hide, sending the beetle-creature back under the bed.

He cleared his voice, calling "Who is it?" and heard Yugi's voice answer.

Without bothering to get dressed – since it was only Yugi – he let his friend in, being careful to close the door behind him.

"Well, I'm glad _somebody_ finally decided to get up!" Yugi teased.

Ryou rolled his eyes. "Listen, I have two modes for sleeping – tossing and turning all night, and practically comatose."

Yugi laughed, collapsing backwards onto the sofa that took up half of the bedroom. He stared up at the ceiling, an odd look coming over his face. "Hey, Ryou? Can I ask you something?"

"Hmm?" Ryou was still wringing water out of his hair and had been heading to get dressed, but he still looked over at Yugi, preparing to give him his full attention. He noticed that Yugi seemed to be playing with a flower of some kind in his lap, but he couldn't tell what it was from where he was standing.

"... Have you ever met someone who just seemed, y'know, weirdly _alluring_? Like, someone who you definitely, _definitely_ shouldn't be interested in, but you are?"

Ryou raised an eyebrow, teasing his friend. "If you asked him out, I don't think Marik would flat out say 'no' or anything."

Yugi gave him a sarcastic look. "No, it's not Marik."

"Oh! Well, in that case, I'm flattered, Yugi, but I really think we work better as friends."

"Oh, shove off it, Ryou!" Maybe the joking had been a bad idea; Yugi was looking mildly stressed. "No, it's... Do you think it's weird if a human is attracted to a monster?"

Unseen by Yugi, a set of six glowing red eyes peered out from under the bed, and a set of teeth flashed a wicked grin. The grin only widened when Ryou froze, staring down at the dark shadows beneath the mattress.

"Aaaahhhh..." Ryou stammered uncertainly. "I don't know? Do, um, do _you_ think it's weird?"

"YES!" Yugi's outcry startled Ryou, and, when he looked back over to him, Yugi was glaring at the flower in his hand, as though it had wronged him somehow. Ryou could now see that it was a rose, and he briefly wondered where it had come from.

"Yes, it _is_ weird!" his friend continued. "It's weird and it's wrong and it's disgusting and – It's not fair! Why does he have to be so damn _good looking_ and have such a deep voice?!"

Understanding dawned on Ryou, and his mouth crooked up into a smile. "This is about the king, isn't it?"

The sound of frustrated anguish that came from Yugi's throat was enough for an answer.

Laughing a bit, Ryou finished pulling on his shirt and moved to sit down, choosing the bed instead of the sofa so that he could face Yugi. "Alright. What brought on this emotional crisis?"

"I ran into him in the palace courtyard this morning and _god_ Ryou he's so scary and handsome at the same and it's _sinful_! He took off his mask and his eyes are so pretty, even though there's three of them-"

"Three eyes?" But his mask only depicted two...?

"-and even though his body is entirely made of sand! He's like a perfect sculpture! I hate him! Oh!" Yugi held up a finger, like he was just remembering something else. "And his third eye gives him psychic powers, so every time I had a horrible, terrible thought about how good he looked, he absolutely heard me, the absolute _bastard_!"

Ryou blinked in confusion. While Yugi's sudden outburst seemed to be over, he really hadn't said much that Ryou understood.

Before Ryou could say anything, there was a hand wrapped around his ankle. He glanced downwards, yelping in surprise as more hands shot out, gripping onto his legs, pulling him to the floor. He heard Yugi let out a cry of alarm as he was dragged under the bed.

He fixed the Bed Bug with a glare, thoroughly irritated. "... Really?"

"What? I'm not allowed to have a little fun?"

"Not while I'm around, you're not!"

Bakura laughed and released him, allowing Ryou to crawl out from under the bed to quell Yugi's terror.

Yugi was still frozen in place when Ryou reemerged.

The albino sighed and rolled his eyes. "Sorry about that. Don't mind Bakura – he's just bored."

That seemed to break Yugi out of his reverie. He frowned, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "'Bakura?'"

"Yeah." Ryou stepped away from the bed, allowing the Bed Bug to crawl out to stand beside him. "Yugi, this is Bakura, the monster who helped me out in the Lynching Forest last week. He decided to come visit me last night."

Bakura licked his lips exaggeratedly, an action that looked much more eerie in the dimly lit room than it had seemed before. "Little Ryou has lots of delicious dreams during the night. How's a Bed Bug supposed to resist such a temptation?"

Yugi grimaced, evidently disturbed, but didn't get a chance to say anything before there was another knock on the door.

Crossing the room and opening the door, Ryou found himself facing two familiar witches, the green-skinned Mana and the blue-skinned Mahad.

Both witches bowed their heads in greeting. "The royal magicians would like to meet with you three Surface Dwellers, if now is a good time for you."

"Um..." He glanced at Yugi, who shrugged. "I guess now is as good a time as any. But we don't know where Marik is right now."

"That's alright. We would like to talk to at least two of you."

Nodding, the two humans followed the Dark Magicians down the hall, leaving the Bed Bug to his own devices.

.

.

.

Mahad and Mana led the humans back to that same room they had met in the previous day. Isis, Karim, and Siamun were already there, with Isis resuming her middle seat beside the altar of incense. Karim was seated to her left, leaving space between them for another person, and Siamun was seated on a stool behind them, both hands resting on his walking cane.

The two humans took their seats across from the magicians while Mahad and Mana took their seats on the right side of Isis.

"Welcome." Isis greeted the humans with a polite nod. "We will begin as soon as Shada arrives."

As if he had heard her, the lizard-man magician entered the room just then, with, to Ryou's surprise, Marik trailing behind him.

"And where have you been all day?" Yugi asked as Marik sat down beside him.

Their Middle Eastern friend looked annoyed. "I was in the library."

"Doing what? You can't tell my you've been reading books for the past seven hours!"

"None of your business!"

Ignoring their bickering, Shada took his seat between Karim and Isis, completing the line of Dark Magicians.

Now that everyone was present, Isis began speaking. "We've been talking and thinking about your problem. We do not yet have any way to open a Rift, but we are working on it. However, we have thought of two other options for your consideration."

"But," Shada interjected. "One of thessse optttions needs time, and the other optttion ssshould be taken under your very careful and thoughtful consssideration, as it could potentttially ccchange your life permanently."

Ryou shivered, not liking the direction this conversation was going already.

Beside him, Marik's eyes narrowed. "Let's hear the one that involves time first."

Karim crossed his arms. "The first option we've thought of is the simplest, but perhaps also the most time-consuming. And it is simply this – remain living in our world for a year's time, until the Damp Season next year, and we can safely transport you through a natural Rift then."

Spending a year or more in Duat didn't sound too bad to Ryou, but he decided to not voice that particular opinion yet.

"The other option we thought you may consider is this – during the time you are waiting for a Rift to open for you, whether it opens by our magic or by natural means, there is always a possibility that you may decide to stay in our world indefinitely." Mahad's eyes, which looks like black orbs instead of human eyeballs, passed over the humans in turn as he spoke.

"We're not saying that we assume you'd want to stay," Mana broke in. "But that it is a possibility. Some humans have chosen to stay, in past situations, with a woman named Ishizu being our most recent example."

Ryou saw Marik grimace, and he wondered why his friend was having such an averse reaction.

Beside him, Yugi bristled. "If I'm staying here, I don't think I want to stay here as a human. I mean, the fact that we've been perfectly safe for the past few days doesn't take away from the fact that we were almost killed and eaten several times on the first day!"

"That is understandable," Isis told him. She addressed the three humans, "And there are ways to make that happen, should you choose to stay for any amount of time."

"How so?"

Mahad answered him. "The Black Crystal Falls. It is our primary source of water, and it is known to have unique properties that could alter a person's physical form."

Ryou exchanged a look with Yugi. He realized that they both wanted the same thing, but for different reasons. "Would that turn us into monsters?"

"Yes. Perhaps not of a recognizable type, but you would become something that is certainly not human."

"Would we still be ourselves underneath?" Marik pressed. "Could this transformation be reversed at a later point, should we return to the Surface World?"

"Yes and yes. The change is only superficial – you would still have your memories and personalities in tact, but your body would appear and function differently. And yes, this is something that has been done before, and there are spells to reverse the process."

The humans all exchanged looks with one another, silently, then turned back to the magicians.

Marik sat up straighter and squared his shoulders. "How do we get to this Black Crystal Falls?"

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- Yugi is in denial and little confused right now.**

 **\- The Black Crystal Falls' name is actually named after two unrelated movies: Disney's "the Black Cauldron" or Jim Henson's "the Dark Crystal." I tend to combine their titles together by accident when I'm really referring to only one of them, and 'Black Crystal' to me just sounds like another magical item name.**

 **\- The water of the Black Crystal (which is buried underground) is what makes the Hollow World so monstrous. If the crystal wasn't buried in the ground beneath the land, the land would more closely resemble the Surface World, and the people of the Hollow World would just be normal humans. I actually had a whole long explanation about this written into the story, but it got too long and too unrelated to the story, so I removed it.**

 **\- And hey, just a little reminder that reviews are not required but always appreciated, and if you have any questions I'm always happy to answer over on tumblr.**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Of Wyrms and Humans

written 3/17/2019 – 3/20/2019

published 4/7/2019

word count: 2,323

* * *

 _This is Halloween_

 _Red and black and slimy green_

* * *

The Black Crystal Falls, it turned out, was a fair hike out of town. Isis told the humans that they should wait for a day or two, to be certain that they wanted to go through with it before they made the journey.

"But," she added before they could protest. "If after two days you still wish to go to the Falls, we will take you there, and we will preform the ceremony ourselves."

There was apparently a ceremony involved. Marik didn't know what the purpose of it was, but he got the idea that Isis was a fan of ceremony, and he didn't press the matter further.

The humans got dinner after leaving their meeting with the magicians, and then they began heading back to their rooms. Yugi and Ryou kept asking Marik about where he had been all day, but he avoided answering them. He wasn't sure they were ready to hear that he'd spent almost two hours in a Book Wyrm's bedroom.

When they arrived back at their cluster of guest rooms, the door to Ryou's room swung open in front of them, hitting the wall with a 'bang,' and the scent of death hitting Marik's nostrils just as hard. There was no light on inside the room, and it looked completely pitch black. The darkness from within the room began to grow, expanding out from the door, spreading outward like grasping arms or tendrils. Six red eyes peered out from the inky blackness, and a dark laugh reverberated from within the room.

Marik fell into a defensive stance, but, to his left, Ryou sighed tiredly.

"Bakura, could you not?"

Instantly, the bedroom looked normal. Well, normal aside from the giant beetle thing that was lounging on the sofa. It was the bearer of the six red eyes, as well as six insectoid arms that ended with human hands, and mandibles on his face that clicked together as a wickedly cruel smile split his face.

"I could 'not,' but where's the fun in that?" The beetle's eyes landed on Marik, and the Middle Easterner felt an instinctive sense of dread well up within him. "This must be Marik, then?"

Ryou smiled brightly. "Yes. And Marik, this is Bakura, the one who helped me out of the Lynching Forest."

"Oh. The guy who gave you his coat? I can smell the resemblance."

Ryou rolled his eyes and entered his room. Turning back, he smiled at the other two over his shoulder. "I think I'm going to turn in for the night. I'll see you two in the morning."

"Um, okay? Good night, then."

As soon as the door was closed behind their albino friend, Marik turned to Yugi, confused.

Yugi shrugged. "I just know Bakura showed up at some point, and Ryou's been hanging out with him all day." He bit his lip. "I'm not sure, but... I think they might be _seeing_ each other."

Marik blinked. Suddenly, telling the others about his time spent with Yamalik didn't seem like it would be the worst decision.

.

.

.

Marik found himself back in the library again the next day. Or, more specifically, he found himself inside of one of the enormous library pillars.

The first day in the palace, when the king was giving them a tour and Marik had seen the library pillars for the first time, they struck him as oddly sized. They were huge, easily ten feet in diameter, and didn't serve any obvious purposes aside from holding up the ceiling above and the staircases that were wrapped around them, jobs that easily could have been accomplished by smaller pillars.

But, as Yamalik had shown him the previous afternoon, the pillars served a function other than structural support. They were hollow, and if a person found the hidden doors along the side of the pillars, that person would find that each pillar contained a single apartment, like a home built right into the very structure of the library itself. And it was within these apartments that the Book Wyrms lived, never truly parting from their precious books.

Yamalik's pillar apartment was furnished fairly simply. A kitchenette was built along one wall, cabinets stacked on top of a minifridge, while the small counter was mostly taken up by the sink and a coffee pot. A half-circle bed took up most of the rest of the wall, and the remaining area was partitioned off, containing a toilet and a very small shower stall. The pillar interior was carpeted and wallpapered, and there was even a rug on the floor and posters of insects hanging on the walls, but most of the unused space was crowded up with stacks of books and spiderwebs, the spiders apparently allowed and even encouraged to take up residence within the living space. Marik had the sneaking suspicion that the Book Wyrms probably squirreled away copies of their favorite books.

The space was small and cramped, but almost cozy. The spiders were really Marik's only problem with it, and Yamalik did a good job at distracting him from that.

Marik was nestled comfortably into the blankets of Yamalik's bed, humming contentedly, while the Wyrm knelt over him. Yamalik's addictive lips were leaving kisses along Marik's cheekbones while his rubbery, snake-like fingers danced along the human's ribcage.

A particularly ticklish touch sent the human into a laughing fit, and he could feel the Wyrm's soft lips twist into a smirk against his skin. A few more touches and kisses, and Marik was pushed into a world of ecstasy that he'd never known or felt before.

"Oh, gods!" Marik swore. He clambered halfway up, grabbing at Yamalik and pulling him in for a proper kiss.

He was supposed to be thinking more about whether or not he really wanted to go to the Black Crystal falls and change his body, whether the change be temporary or permanent, but why think about _anything_ when he could engage in mindless addictions instead? Yamalik was like a terribly unhealthy habit, and just that first taste alone was enough to get Marik hooked.

Yamalik chuckled, the sound twisted and cruel and utterly dark. "I have to say, cutie – so far you've been the most fun of any toy I've taken to bed."

Marik had a retort halfway out of his mouth that quickly turned into an outcry as the Wyrm's sinful, lolling tongue traced a pattern over his skin.

There was a knock on the door, interrupting them.

"Yamalik?" It was Ishizu's voice, and Marik's sudden tension didn't go unnoticed by Yamalik. "Odion wants your help with something, if you're not too busy."

"And what if I _am_ busy?"

Ishizu scoffed. "You're too lazy to be busy. What are you doing in there, anyway?"

Growling like an animal in his throat, Marik pushed Yamalik off of himself. Walking over to the door, he opened it a crack, just enough that he could see Ishizu and she could see him.

"Me," he told her, taking pleasure in the way her eyebrows shot up when she saw him. "He's doing me."

He heard Yamalik burst out laughing behind him.

.

.

.

Yamalik left and got back to work. Marik wasn't sure what exactly he was working on today, but it sounded like he and Rishid were working on repairing an old book or something.

So a while later and Marik was sitting in the library, his legs crossed and an open book in front of him, acting as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

He'd intentionally chosen a table close to where Ishizu and Shizuka would have their tutoring session. It was fun to see the way Ishizu squirmed in place and quickly looked away every time he caught her looking at him.

When Shizuka left for a moment, Ishizu was quick to turn on the other human, sneering at him. "You've only been here for a day or two and already you're what? Sleeping with a monster you just met? What is wrong with you?"

"Hey, at least I'm _getting_ what I want," he jeered in retaliation.

The two estranged siblings glared at each other from their respective tables. Their silent competition was interrupted by the arrival of Rishid, who suddenly appeared on the side of a bookcase, crawling down and around to approach them.

"Ishizu, I don't suppose you've seen my awl anywhere?" The Tome Keeper asked. "I seem to have misplaced it."

Before she could answer, Marik spoke up, grabbing the Wyrm's attention. "Hey, Tome Keeper Rishid?"

"Yes, Master Marik?"

Marik took on the face of innocent curiosity. "I found a book in the fiction section about a monster who falls in love with and marries a human. I'm not surprised or anything, since we have stories like that on the Surface World, but I was just wondering if that kind of relationship was considered strange or normal."

"Well," Rishid tilted his head to one side, his ponytail sliding off his shoulder as he shifted. "I suppose that depends on who you ask. In general, since the denizens of the Hollow and Surface Worlds don't meet, a relationship forged between peoples from each world would certainly stand out as strange. But, there are always those who see nothing unusual about such relationships." He winced a bit. "My brother, for example..."

Out of the corner of his eye, Marik could see how frustrated Ishizu was getting. She really shouldn't be so annoyed – after all, he was about to do her a favor.

"And how do _you_ view such relationships, Rishid?" Marik asked. He saw Ishizu's eyes widen, and fix themselves on the back of Rishid's head, and he knew she had seen the genius of his actions.

Rishid frowned. "Personally, I can't imagine myself sharing my life with a human. With my books or another Wyrm of my kind, perhaps, but never a human. Nothing against you or your species, Master Marik, but nothing about you humans particularly interests me."

Deeming the conversation over, Rishid turned around back to Ishizu, who, deflated, admitted that she hadn't seen his awl all day. When the Tome Keeper left, the human woman seemed to shrink down into her seat, but then sat up again and put on a painfully fake smile when Shizuka returned.

For the first time in a long, long time, Marik felt empathy towards his sister, and he felt bad for what he had done.

.

.

.

Marik was surprised when Yugi and Ryou appeared in the library, considering how little interest they had both displayed in the library so far. But, judging from the way they were looking around and, as soon as they saw him, made a beeline straight for him, Marik guessed that they were probably in there looking for him.

"So _this_ is where you've been hiding out?" was Yugi's idea of a greeting.

This brought a chuckle out of Marik. "Oh no, I've been found! I'll have to think of a better place to hide from you guys!"

"Oh! More Surface Dwellers!"

The three human males turned toward the direction of the voice, and they saw Shizuka's face pointed in their general direction, her pink-lined lips pulled into a delighted smile. Beside her, Ishizu had tensed up, and was scowling at a notebook for no apparent reason.

Marik gestured to the two females at the neighboring table. "Guys, this is Shizuka the Faceless Clown, Jounouchi's younger sister. And the sour-looking woman is Ishizu..." He frowned. "... _My_ sister."

Yugi smiled at the clown girl. "Hi! I'm Yugi."

"Ah! Nice to meet you, Shizuka. I'm Ryou." The albino beamed, nothing if not polite. "You too, Ishizu."

Shizuka giggled and waved to them excitedly. "Nice to meet you, too! My brother told me a little bit about how he met you."

"What brings you two in here, anyway?" Marik asked.

"We need to talk about the Black Crystal Falls," Yugi answered him. He sat down at the table when Marik gestured to an empty seat. "How sure are we that we want to go through with it?"

"Well, I think it would be a good idea."

Yugi nodded. "I can see both good and bad in it."

Sitting down on the other side of Yugi, Ryou smiled. "I'm ready for it and would happily go today if we could!"

"You're so weird, Ryou!" Yugi snorted. "Admit it – you just want to be a monster, now that you know that's a possibility!"

Ishizu hadn't been paying attention to the other humans since they entered the room, but, at this point in their conversation, she almost jumped in her chair, her head snapping up in their direction.

Marik began explaining before she could even ask a question. "The royal magicians might take us to this waterfall or something that can turn us into monsters, depending on whether or not we choose to go."

"... Why wasn't _I_ ever informed of this?"

Marik scoffed. "You probably didn't ask."

Ishizu made a growling sound in her throat. She stood up from her chair and stalked over to the tables where the males were sitting, nearly pouncing as she slammed her hands down on the tabletop, glaring at Marik over a stack of books.

"Take me with you," she demanded.

Yugi, Ryou, and Shizuka all looked very uncomfortable, but Marik just shrugged.

"If that's what you want."

"It is."

"Fine." Marik thought she was being rash and very, very superficial – he and the others wanted to change for themselves if at all, while she wanted to change for a man who, frankly, wasn't worth it.

"We go out in two days," he told her. "Be there or don't."

He stood to leave, ending the conversation for the day, and Yugi and Ryou followed him.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- I had to come back and edit this chapter after posting it because I realized that I hadn't given it a title. Oops.**

 **\- That first scene with Marik and Yamalik is probably the closest I'll ever get to publishing a 'lemon' scene (if you don't mind me calling it that).**

 **\- Marik and Ishizu are both very impulsive in their actions and feelings, but they judge one another for it.**

 **\- ... I don't think I have anything else to say about this chapter. Let me know if you have a question about anything, though.**


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20: A Royal Rose And A Shrinking Pansy

written 3/21/2019 – 3/29/2019

published 4/8/2019

word count: 2,751

* * *

 _This is Halloween_

 _Everybody scream_

* * *

"You never told us you had a sister," Yugi commented as he and the others left the library. It was especially surprising to learn that the only other human for miles around was so closely related to his friend.

Of course, now that Yugi thought about it, he realized that he didn't know much about Marik's family or home life, and Marik probably didn't know too much about his. It wasn't a conversation that had ever come up before.

Marik sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "She and I don't get along. I never mentioned her because I never imagined I would see her again."

He didn't say anything more about it, and Yugi decided not to press it.

"So we _are_ going through with the changing, right?" Ryou asked.

"I think it's a good idea. It'll keep us safer." Marik glanced at the albino. "Why do you want to become a monster so much?"

Ryou frowned as the attention was focused onto him. Yugi had his suspicions about the reasons behind Ryou's desire to change his body, but didn't feel like it was his place to voice them.

When Ryou answered a moment later, his voice was low. "I don't want to look like my father anymore." There was a pause, and then he added, "And if I can change my body to look like something, _anything_ else, I don't know that I would want to change back ever again."

Marik nodded. Yugi knew that he and Ryou had never really explained to him about the whole story with Ryou's father and why they were homeless, but Marik seemed to understand the idea of having family-related problems.

They were startled when Mana popped up just then, the green-skinned witch appearing in a cloud of sparkles. Giggling, she bowed deeply to them in greeting, then bounced back up with a smile.

"You've reached a decision!" she said. A statement, not a question. "The king would like to talk to you now."

She snapped her fingers and vanished in a puff of purple smoke, leaving the three human men very confused.

"Well..." Marik said finally. "Guess let's not keep his majesty waiting."

.

.

.

Atem was in his courtyard waiting for them, sitting cross-legged on a stone bench. He was wearing an outfit today that caught Yugi's eye – a royal blue tunic and a shimmering green coat with puffy sleeves and flecks of gold that glittered in the light – and the human felt himself swallow, his throat suddenly dry.

He had the feeling that Atem looked gorgeous in anything, and it made him want to scream.

The monstrous king had a sitar in his lap that he was plucking at, striking an odd note here and there. He looked up when the humans approached, his mask gleaming in the light.

"Good afternoon," he greeted. "I'm told you have decided something about staying here or going home?"

"Yes," Marik answered for all of them. "We've decided that, until a Rift opens or is opened by your magicians, we think it would be best for us to visit your Black Crystal Falls, and stay here for awhile as monsters."

Atem looked over the humans briefly, each in turn, and then nodded once. "And I'm told that the library assistant will be joining you. Is this correct?"

"Yes."

The king's voice changed a bit, and Yugi got the impression that he was smiling under the mask. "And I'm told that you two -" His eyes shifted between Marik and Ryou. "- have found yourselves some paramours. And I'm sure _that_ has no effect on your decision to stay awhile longer, does it?"

Looking at his friends in confusion and surprise, Yugi saw both of them stand up a little straighter, their eyes widening.

"Are you spying on us?" Ryou accused. He sounded angry, something Yugi wasn't used to hearing from him.

"Of course not." The king set his sitar down in his lap, holding up his hands in a placating manner. "But it's my guards' and magicians' business to know everything that goes on inside the palace."

He pointed sternly at Ryou. "Did you really think that a full grown Bed Bug could slip into my palace undetected? Especially in the room of one of my special guests that my magicians have been keeping tabs on?"

He turned to Marik. "And it isn't like you or Yamalik are really trying to hide it. And did you think the other Book Wyrms wouldn't notice at all?"

Remembering the buggy eyes and lolling tongues and rubbery, snake-like bodies of the Book Wyrms made Yugi shudder involuntarily, and the realization of what exactly Marik had been doing these past couple of days left him speechless.

"I'm sorry if you feel that your privacy was infringed upon," Atem started. "But you have to remember – you are strangers who are staying in the country's capital building, where government officials work and where the country ruler lives. You will be watched by my security guards constantly, and that's just the way it is."

His voice grew tight and wry. "You have retained quite a bit of privacy, I can assure you. Much more than _I_ have ever had."

After a moment, the tension left Ryou, and then Marik. "Alright."

"Again, I apologize." Atem refocused on his sitar. "But I understand your view points. That's really all I wanted to discuss with you at the moment."

He called out after them when the humans turned to leave. "Yugi, may I have a word with you?"

Doing his best to ignore the sneaky little smirk that Ryou flashed him, Yugi stalled in his tracks, slowly turning back to the monster king.

Atem's eyes shifted between the human and his sitar. "According to your account, you were very anxious to leave the Hollow World as soon as you had entered into it, and I could sense the urgency in your minds when you first came to the palace. But, even just in the past few days, that sense of urgency has waned."

He looked up, gazing directly into Yugi's face. "I know why your friends have settled, deciding to wait around for awhile before returning to the Surface World, but what of you? You still feel that strong desire to leave, and yet you do not. Why?"

Yugi opened his mouth, then closed it. He didn't really have a good answer for that. Mainly, he was staying because he didn't want to leave without Ryou, and, for Ryou's sake, Yugi would stay in this world for another fifty years if he had to, as much as he would rather not.

But, on the other hand, it wasn't like the palace was a terrible place to be. In the short period of time Yugi had been in the Hollow World, he'd only felt safe in three places – Mayor Pegasus' office, Kisara's Inn, and here at the palace. Yugi didn't know that he could live at the palace indefinitely or anything – he would prefer to work for a living than live as a freeloader, after all – but he thought it was a place he could stay in comfortably for awhile.

Atem set down his sitar suddenly. He shifted on the bench, moving so that two people could sit upon it, and patted the empty space beside him. "Come. Sit beside me, Yugi."

Hesitantly, Yugi obeyed. He was still uncertain of what would happen to him if he disobeyed the monster king.

As soon as he was seated, Atem pulled off his mask, his gritty lips splitting into a smile as he leaned closer to Yugi.

Startled, Yugi scooted away. "What do you want from me?"

The brought a laugh from the mummy-like ruler. "Silly human. It's not what _I_ want – it's what _you_ want!" He brought a hand to Yugi's chin, lifting it. "I can only feel your desires and respond accordingly. That's how Sandmen work, after all."

Before the human could react, the monster king's sandy lips were pressed to his. It was like kissing sandpaper, and it was rough and cold, and it was over almost as soon as it had begun.

Yugi tried to ignore the way his stomach flipped.

"... You give very mixed signals," Atem remarked after a moment.

"You scare me," Yugi responded instantly, the words out of his mouth before he'd even thought them. "You're beautiful and you scare me."

Atem blinked all three of his eyes, then shrugged. "Fair enough, I suppose." He tapped Yugi's nose, his face too serious for the playful action. "You should decide what you want, silly human."

Yugi didn't answer. What was he supposed to say to that?

There was a second kiss then, this one on his forehead, like a protective blessing.

"You should go now." The king's voice was unreadable, and he slid his mask back over his face. "You have visitors waiting for you at the front steps."

Feeling more confused than before, Yugi rose to his feet, leaving the courtyard as quickly as his legs could carry him.

.

.

.

Mana appeared almost as soon as Yugi reentered the hall, and she was quick to direct him to the palace entryway.

"Some monsters from Halloween Town have come to visit," she told him. "They seem to know you."

Curious, Yugi rushed to the front entry. Reaching it, he found Marik and Ryou there ahead of him, along with Shizuka and several other familiar, colorful characters.

"Hi, Yugi!" came a woman's voice. The gargoyle attached to it smiled broadly, flapping her wings excitedly.

A clown looked up from where he was sitting on the steps with Shizuka, one arm thrown around the younger girl's shoulders. "Hey, Yugi!"

Yugi beamed as he walked down the steps, moving to sit beside Ryou and Marik. "Hi, guys! What are you doing here?"

"Well, Jou was coming up to visit his sister anyway-" Otogi began. He was cut off by Jounouchi.

"-and these freeloaders decided to come with me." The clown stuck his tongue out at Otogi, Honda, and Anzu, before turning back to the humans. "But anyway, I came to visit Shizuka, and we wanted to check up on you three."

Beside him, Shizuka giggled. "They actually came early. Usually my brother visits me later in the day, after I've gone home."

"Well, we wanted to catch you while you were still at the palace."

Honda snorted. "Easier than trying to sneak in later on." He leaned back, looking over at the humans. "So what's the situation with you guys? Can they get you home?"

Marik grinned wryly and made a scoffing sound. "Not exactly..."

It took them a few minutes to explain, but their friends nodded in understanding when they were finished.

"So you're going to live as monsters for awhile, huh?"

"Yeah. The magicians are going to take us to a place called the Black Crystal Falls. They say the waters there will change us."

"They will," Honda said firmly, water trickling out of his gills when he spoke. "The waters of the Hollow World are strong, and they will recreate you into the image they want for you."

"It's been done in the past. There's usually a ceremony to go with it," Otogi remarked.

Yugi shifted in his seat. "What kind of ceremony?"

"Well, dancing, mostly. There's a special singing chant, too."

Otogi poked Anzu in the shoulder, and she jumped up to her feet. She moved her legs and wings, her personal breeze sending the petals of her vine flowers to rustle and spin in circles around her. She was very graceful in her movements, and it was like watching a professional ballet.

"It's actually a simple dance," Anzu explained. Yugi didn't understand any of her movements, but she made it looks so effortless. "It's called 'the Darkness Welcomes You,' and it's a dance taught to school children to perform around holidays."

"And do you know why it is called that?" A new voice came from behind the group, surprising all of them.

Everyone turned and jumped in their seats, startled by the newcomers. Behind them, King Atem stood at the head of the entryway stairs, gazing down at them. Isis, Shada, and Karim stood on one side of him, while Mahad, Mana, and Siamun stood on the other.

"It's called that because the ceremony was originally intended to welcome newcomers to our world," the king explained. Despite his serious countenance, his voice sounded pleased and full of humor. "It's a welcoming ritual for immigrants, new neighbors, and new family members, to show how happy you are that they're here."

His words changed from being directed at the entire group to being only directed at Anzu. "It's a lovely dance with a lovely meaning, and you performed it perfectly, Miss Mazaki."

"... Thank you, my lord." Anzu bent her head dutifully before taking her seat between Honda and Otogi once more. Even behind her short curtain of hair, Yugi could see her blush and happy smile.

From behind his cloth half-mask, Siamun was visibly smiling, and the way his eyes lit up reminded Yugi so much of his own dear grandfather.

"You're a very talented dancer, young lady," the elderly magician praised. Anzu looked up at him shyly, her blush becoming more evident. Suddenly, as though struck by inspiration, Siamun clapped his hands together and turned to the king.

"The ceremony is as important as anything else," he said. He turned to the humans. "What would you three say to bringing your friends from Halloween Town along on your trip to be changed by the Black Crystal waters?"

Noticing how excited the younger monsters were getting at the suggestion, Yugi raised his eyebrows. "Can we?"

"It is your decision," Isis said simply. "The purpose of the ceremony is, as the king said, intended to affirm your transition and welcome you in your new body. You are allowed to bring anyone you want, if there is anyone special you want there with you."

Glancing at each other, the humans turned back to their cluster of monster friends. Marik spoke for all of them.

"You guys have been nothing but great, and you _did_ pretty much save mine and Yugi's lives back in Halloween Town..." The Middle Eastern man got that wry grin of his again. "You want to come to the Falls with us?" He glanced at the younger clown girl. "You too, Shizuka. I bet Ishizu would like for you to come, as well."

The motley crew of monsters all beamed excitedly, and Jounouchi spoke for all five of them with a resounding "Heck YEAH, we'd love to come along! We'll even perform the dance!"

Otogi snorted. "Badly, but we will."

After a moment's hesitation, Ryou turned to the king and his magicians. "Can I bring another person with me? There's this... someone else I want to be there."

"If you like." Isis had the faintest hint of a smile. "After all, you _are_ allowed to bring whoever you want."

Yugi smiled at the look of relief on Ryou's face. He had a feeling Ryou wanted to bring his Bed Bug friend, and also that Ryou would have brought him anyway, regardless of the answer, but still felt the need to ask permission first.

.

.

.

The king and his magicians left shortly thereafter, leaving the humans and their friends to talk about all that had transpired over the past few days. They had fun together, and Yugi couldn't remember the last time he'd interacted with a proper group of friends.

It was nice, and possibly the best day Yugi could remember having in the last few years of his life.

The happy smile on his face lasted well into the evening, even when he and the others separated at the end of the day, each heading for their own respective beds. A feeling of being genuinely cared for, feeling really and truly loved and wanted, filled Yugi's head as the Japanese man lay down to sleep, and it was nothing short of the best feeling.

He saw the rose on his bedside table, the fading bloom that Atem had given him, and that was the last thing he saw before he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- Ryou has issues with self-image.**

 **\- I've really been enjoying writing Atem as both creepy and flirty. It's very different from how I usually write him. I don't think Yugi really knows how to react, though. (lol, poor Yugi just lives to suffer)**

 **\- This is the last chapter from Yugi's perspective. It's kind of sad to be moving away from him, but don't worry - he's not going anywhere yet.**


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Turning Point

written 3/29/2019 – 4/5/2019

published 4/8/2019

word count: 2,514

* * *

 _In this town_

 _We call home_

 _Everyone hail to the pumpkin song_

* * *

Bakura wasn't there when Ryou went back to bed. The Bed Bug had left that morning though, heading out to eat or whatever, so Ryou hadn't really expected him to be there.

Ryou slept alone that night. It was probably the first time he had truly slept alone in years, and he couldn't decide if it was something he enjoyed anymore or not. And it was hard to sleep, anyway – he was excited about the prospect of going to the Black Crystal Falls, and his body was restless and anxious for the trip.

That energy was still with him the next morning when he woke up, and he couldn't help but voice his thoughts out loud as he got dressed.

"Tomorrow, we go to the Falls," he mused. He twisted a thin strand of white hair around his finger, staring at it. "I wonder what sort of monster I'll be?"

"Where are you going?"

Ryou spun around to look at the bed, smiling when he saw who was under it. "Good morning, Bakura!"

"It's not." The cynical Bed Bug crawled out from under the bed, making himself comfortable on the mattress. "So where are you going?"

"The royal magicians are going to take Marik, Yugi, and I to a place called the Black Crystal Falls tomorrow. We want to be turned into monsters so we can stay here just as safely as anyone else."

Bakura clicked his mandibles together. "Temporary or permanent?"

"... Undecided." Well, Ryou was fairly certain that he would never want this body again, but he didn't really feel like diving into that right now. Instead, he asked, "What kind of monster do you think I could be?"

The beetle made a strange, clicking sort of laugh. "You'd be a perfect ghost. You're already pale enough for it!"

Ryou frowned and pursed his lips, very much not amused. "Ha ha."

"Hmmm..." The beetle hummed, very much so amused. He grinned. "Perhaps you could be a drowned rat."

"That sounds disgusting!"

"Really? I always found them to be quite adorable, myself." Laughing, Bakura jumped up from the bed, crossing the room just enough to tussle Ryou's hair. "I think you would look positively _precious_!"

The human frowned. "Okay. You can stop making fun of me now."

"Not a chance. You're so small and delicate – it's funny when you're mad."

"Oh, go eat a sour lemon!"

Bakura's laughing slowed down, though he still grinned like an insect version of the Cheshire cat. He leaned down suddenly, grazing Ryou's cheek with his nose in something akin to a kiss.

"You would make an attractive Bed Bug," he whispered, the close sound of his voice startling Ryou. "But, I have a feeling you'll be perfect in whatever form the waters of the Black Crystal choose for you."

Surprised, Ryou turned to his nightmarish companion. "You really think so?"

"Yes." One of his many fingers began tracing down Ryou's nose and around his lips. "You'll be a glorious monster."

Ryou kissed the finger when it got close enough, and Bakura flashed him a smile. Not an amused smile, or a wicked grin, but a genuine smile of pure happiness. And, when the beetle's many arms came to wrap and fold around Ryou in a strangely warm embrace, the human could feel that same sort of smile growing across his own face.

"So," the human said after a few moments of content silence. He pulled his head back and craned his neck a bit, gazing up the Bed Bug. " _You_ know everything about me, but I still don't know much about you."

"... What do you want to know?"

"Well..." Ryou thought for a second. "What's you family like?"

Bakura frowned. "My family is dead. I am the only one left of my kind."

"... oh." The human frowned too, biting his lower lip. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault."

"Well, I'm sorry anyway." He reached up, putting his hands on Bakura's shoulders. "Do you miss having a family? Do you ever think about starting a new one someday?" It was a thought that crossed his own mind from time to time, even though, as long as Yugi was around, he never felt truly alone.

That brought something akin to a smirk to the Bed Bug's face. "Why? Are you offering?" He bent his head down so their faces were at the same level. "Do you want to be my new family?"

Ryou pursed his lips again. "Do you want me to be?"

Bakura answered by kissing him, and Ryou felt like that was answer enough.

Love isn't supposed to come fast, but Ryou didn't care. A second kiss began just as soon as the first one ended, and then it was Ryou who initiated the third one, deciding he wasn't finished yet. He held Bakura off before a fourth could start.

"Bakura?"

"What?"

"... Come to the Falls with me." An order, not a question, and it made Bakura smirk. "I want you to be there."

"Silly little Ryou." Bakura's hands were in the human's hair, and his voice was low, and oddly soft for him, before turning into a low growl. "I was going to come whether you wanted me there or not."

"... You're awful."

The beetle laughed. He stepped back suddenly, releasing Ryou from the embrace and letting his hands fall down Ryou's arms, clasping the human's hands instead.

He tugged the human toward the bed. "Come under the bed with me. I'll keep you warm, I promise."

Raising an eyebrow, Ryou smiled, allowing himself to be drawn down into the darkness below the mattress.

.

.

.

Yugi and the others were in the library when Ryou finally found them, gathered around a table. They seemed to be playing a card game of some sort, which, near as he could tell, Yugi was winning.

Ryou walked up beside Marik, who was standing behind Yugi. Jounouchi sat across from Yugi, growling at the cards he held in his hand, while Shizuka, Anzu, Otogi, and Honda were all clustered around him, trying to point out winning card combinations.

"Good morning," Ryou chirped.

Marik turned to him. "'Morning, Ryou."

"What's this?"

"Oh, Jounouchi brought a game called 'Dueling Monsters.'" Marik shrugged. "Seems to play like 'Magic: the gathering.' Yugi had it figured out pretty quick. They're on their fifth round, now, and Yugi's won every one."

Ryou grinned. That sounded about right.

The Faceless Clown man suddenly let out a resounding growl. "Alright, I give up! I give up! I'm done! You win again, human!"

His words were angry, but the smile tugging at his features led Ryou to believe that there wasn't any actual anger behind them.

Ryou's grin widened. "That's Yugi for you. He never loses!"

"Well, unless my opponent is cheating," Yugi amended. He turned his gaze back to Jounouchi. "Want to go another round?"

"You _know_ I do!"

The sound of cards being shuffled filled the air as they began again.

Ryou felt Marik's hand on his shoulder. When he turned to him, he could see the doubt in his friend's eyes.

"Ryou," Marik began. His voice was low, just enough for Ryou to hear but not enough for anyone else to hear. "About what the king said... Are you and Bakura-?"

"Yes." Ryou didn't have to hear the rest of the question. He thought about admitting how he thought Bakura may have proposed to him earlier, but decided against it. Instead, he asked a question of his own. "So, you and a Book Wyrm?"

Marik's face had the hint of a smile, he nodded his head in another direction. Following his gaze, Ryou saw the Tome Keeper Rishid at a bookcase, with two other Wyrms beside him.

"The one on the left, next to Rishid," Marik explained. He was referring to a male Wyrm, with buggy, lavender eyes and long platinum hair, with a long tongue that was forever licking his lips. "His name is Yamalik. He's Rishid's brother."

Ryou turned his gaze back to Marik. "Is it serious?"

The Middle Eastern man shrugged. "I don't know. But... it's not _bad_."

Laughter from the game table interrupted them, and they turned back to find Honda and Otogi leaning over Jounouchi's shoulders, shaking and jeering at their friend.

"Wow! You sure are talented, Jou!" Honda sneered. Water dripped out of his gills when he spoke, splashing over Jounouchi and making the clown splutter. "I've never seen anyone lose a game _that_ fast!"

"Shut your mouth, fish-face!"

Ryou laughed aloud, unable to help himself. He hadn't had so much fun with a group of people since middle school. Somehow, these particular monsters made it easy.

.

.

.

The dark magicians came to collect them all in the morning. It was still dark out, dark enough that Ryou could still see that peculiar moon that looked a lantern hanging in the sky.

They traveled as a procession, some riding on top of creatures that resembled the skeletons of horses, with long, lolling tongues and sharp teeth and mouths that breathed fire. Those that didn't ride the horses walked beside them.

The king and the elderly Siamun rode horses, as did the humans. Ryou shared his horse with Bakura, who rode behind him, antennae and fingers occasionally brushing through the human's hair. Beside them, Marik also shared his horse, Yamalik riding with him. The Book Wyrm was practically wrapped around the horse, his long, rubbery body took up so much space.

Yugi rode on the other side of Ryou. He didn't share his seat, but Jounouchi and Shizuka kept grabbing onto the horse's saddle, putting both their roller skate feet to the ground and allowing the beast to drag them along, laughing and giggling loudly as they did so. They looked like a pair of surfers being towed by a boat, and Ryou couldn't help but laugh at their clownish antics.

Behind them, Otogi, Honda, and Anzu all shared a horse, squeezed in against each other, while Ishizu rode her own horse. Odion Rishid the Tome Keeper had also come along (Ryou wasn't sure if the king had invited him, or if it was Yamalik or Ishizu), but he chose to walk by himself. The royal magicians walked alongside him, each one walking in a slightly different manner, as did several of the same dog-headed guards that had transported the king to Halloween Town.

Despite the early morning atmosphere, plenty of the inhabitants of Duat turned out to watch the procession. Ryou couldn't really blame them – it _was_ quite a spectacle. But he didn't appreciate how many monsters openly gawked at him and the other humans, some curious, some threatening; it made him feel like a piece of meat on display, and it made his flesh crawl.

"Ignore them," Bakura hissed at him through clenched teeth, mandibles clicking aggressively. He gripped Ryou in a territorial way. "They mean nothing."

The Black Crystal Falls was located partway up a mountain, just five miles or so outside of Duat's city limits. The whole trek was little more than two hours. By the time it was over, Ryou was sore and achy and promising himself that he would never sit down again.

The Falls was in a clearing, the barren ground breaking open into a lake, the black water foaming in a way that didn't look natural. The waterfall itself spouted out of the rocky side of the mountain, and seemed to channel the water straight up from the earth itself, with no obvious source of liquid. The sun was rising at this point, the blood red tint of the sun dancing across the pitch-black surface of the water.

Isis led the magicians into a formation, along with Anzu, Otogi, Honda, Jounouchi, and Shizuka. Atem dismounted his horse but made no move to join them, instead moving to stand beside Rishid, who seemed to writing a record of what was happening.

When she was finished with her instructions for the others, Isis turned to the humans, smiling and bowing her head. "We are ready. You may enter at your leisure, or you may turn back if you choose. But, if you decide to proceed, you must wade through the lake water quickly, and you must stand beneath the waterfall for three minutes. We will signal you for time."

"You're sure about this?" Bakura asked suddenly, causing Ryou to whip his head toward him. "You don't have to change for anybody, you know." Ryou didn't have to change for _him_ , is what he meant.

Ryou smiled. "I'm not doing this for anyone but myself," he promised.

Bakura nodded his head in understanding, then took a few steps back, giving the humans space. Yamalik did the same nearby, and then the four humans were standing alone together, with no one and nothing between them and the black waters.

Ryou stared at the churning, murky waters for a moment, and swallowed. He heard a drumbeat start, and the magicians began to chant. The words meant nothing to him, but it sounded like an ancient rite of passage of some sort.

It was Marik who moved first, swearing loudly before taking a running jump into the water, moving straight for the waterfall. He screamed as he disappeared under the water, and Ryou couldn't see him anymore.

Ishizu lunged in after him, yelling something about refusing to be outdone by her own brother, and she too vanished from sight.

The two that were left both looked at one another for a moment, both seeing the hesitation and determination that simultaneously existed in their eyes, and both seeing their own feelings reflected back at them. Yugi took a sharp breath, then held out his hand, which Ryou took in his own, and together they stepped into the water.

It was hot. As they raced for the falls, Ryou dimly wondered if he would be boiled alive. But then, diving under the falls itself, the water became freezing cold. The sensations assaulted Ryou's senses just as roughly as the water pounded down onto his body, and a scream was ripped from his throat.

Pain. It was nothing but pain. It was like his entire body was being ripped apart. His senses failed, and he could no longer see or hear or smell anything. He was aware that his mouth was open, trying to scream, but he couldn't even be sure that any sound was coming out.

He didn't know or rightly care about what was happening to Yugi or the others; all he could think about was the pain that tore through his mind and body, leaving a wave of destruction in its path.

.

..

…

Then, something changed. Like the last piece of puzzle clicking into place. Ryou became aware of his surroundings again, and the water felt warm and gentle.

He heard someone call for him to get out of the water, and he moved to comply. Stepping out from the beneath the falls was like coming out of the shower after a good scrub, and the feeling of being clean and fresh ran all through Ryou.

A warm feeling grew out of his very core, and a happy smile spread across his face.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- The game 'Dueling Monsters' is a reference to a very obscure card game called 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' I think it's based off a comic or something. I don't expect any of you to be familiar with it. (joking, joking!)**

 **\- The dancing/chanting that's happening in the background, in my head, looks and sounds like the 'la-la'ing chorus from the end of the opening 'Nightmare Before Christmas' song, where Jack jumps into the fountain and changed while the other monsters are all singing and dancing around him.**

 **\- That last scene where Ryou jumps into the water and begins changing was really fun to write. It was fun to focus on how a character was feeling, physically, instead of what they were thinking.**

 **\- This is the last chapter from Ryou's perspective and, like with Yugi's, it's kind of sad to see him go.**


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Perhaps a Happy Ending, Perhaps a New Beginning

written 4/5/2019 – 4/6/2019

published 4/8/2019

word count: 3,384

* * *

 _Boys and girls of every age_

 _Wouldn't you like to see something strange?_

 _Come with us and you will see_

 _This our town of Halloween_

* * *

A feeling of indescribable joy filled Marik as he exited the falls. He'd walked most of the way to the bank of the lake when he was suddenly grabbed and pulled out of the water, Yamalik's arms wrapping all around him.

"... Hi," Marik said. He laughed and hummed as the Book Wyrm kissed him.

"You're gorgeous," Yamalik told him. He shoved Marik suddenly, pushing him toward a mirror that Mana conjured up into the air. "See for yourself."

Marik didn't recognize the image in the mirror as his own reflection at first, and his eyes widened when he finally realized what he was staring at.

His skin was lightly textured, and when he touched it, it felt like sand. But when he looked close enough at his arm, it looked like tiny scales that overlapped each other, all gleaming gold and bronze in the daylight. Marik's hair was gone, replaced by snakes that were attached to his head, coiling around one another and each moving of their own accord. When Marik refocused his eyes, he realized that he could see through the snakes' eyes just as well as his own.

His face largely looked the same. His eyes were still fuchsia in color, but now the pupil and iris were shaped differently, now much more closely resembling the eyes of a snake than a human. His cheekbones and lips and eyebrows and eyelashes and ears all looked the same, but his mouth felt different on the inside. When he opened his mouth to look at it, he saw two long, thin fangs on either side of his mouth, soft and easily bent back into his mouth, and dripping with a yellowish-green liquid; a snake's venomous fangs, he realized. His tongue was also different, longer and sharper and stronger than before, and colored with strange bands of color, black and white stripes running across where it should have been a pink muscle.

The former humans were all out of the water now, and clamoring around the mirror to look at themselves. The king ordered them to form a line, and began to name each of them, telling them what they had become.

"Marik, you have become a Sand Wyrm," he explained. "Sand Wyrms generally live in deserted wastelands, like the land you saw surrounding Halloween Town. Your teeth are filled with venom, and your tongue is coated with a paralyzing poison, making your mouth the most dangerous part of your body. However, other Wyrms are immune to both your venomous bite and your poison tongue."

Mahad spoke up helpfully beside his king. "When looking for a place to live, you would do well to look for a place hot and dry. And, most Sand Wyrms often eat insects, so you may experience cravings that you've never felt before."

Marik grimaced. "I eat bugs now?"

"That's disgusting!" Bakura's voice called out before Mahad could answer. "You'd better not come anywhere near Ryou or I again, _Wyrm_!"

"Careful, Bed Bug," Yamalik answered. His voice was low and ominous, and his tongue swept across his lips hungrily. "All Wyrms eats insects, you know."

Bakura visibly swallowed and backed away, spitting and hissing angrily.

Even behind his mask, the king was visibly rolling his eyes, and he was quick to move on.

Ishizu stood beside Marik, but she was no longer recognizable as his kin. She looked like a cross between a werewolf and a tiger, all striped hair and sharp claws, and big teeth. Pointed ears grew out from the hair on top of her head, and a shaggy wolf tail grew out her back. Her eyes were yellow and they glowed, and her hair had become a wild mane. She didn't quite look like a feline or a canine, but every inch of her looked fearsome.

"You are now a Howling Animal in the Dark," the king told her. "A beast whose voice carries in the night, striking fear into the hearts of any who hear it. Your body is perfect for hunting, and your very presence is enough to ward off external forces of danger."

Ishizu was staring down at herself. "... Am I a werewolf or a cat creature?"

"Both." The king didn't have any more words for her, and moved onto Ryou next.

And Ryou was... certainly different. Where Marik and Ishizu resembled animals, Ryou resembled a child's toy. His skin had been replaced by patches of soft, colorful fabric, sewn together like a quilt. His eyes were bright blue buttons, like Adina's, with black thread eyelashes stitched into the fabric of his face around them. His hair was now somehow even longer, made of a rainbow of colors that shone iridescently, and moved like a doll's plastic hair; a matching tail grew from his back, flowing in the wind.

But perhaps the most interesting aspect of Ryou's new form was the horn that grew from his head. It was sharp and shiny, and it really pulled together the image of Ryou being a unicorn toy.

"Ryou, you are a Night Light," the king told him. "Like Bakura, you can eat people's nightmares. But you also have the ability to transform their nightmares if you so choose, and grant them good dreams instead of bad ones. In fact, many Night Lights have moved to live permanently on the Surface World, where they are mistaken for children's toys and are kept close to the beds where they sleep. They tend to ward away Bed Bugs and Closet Creepers and other monsters who would prey upon the sleeping humans, and they share something akin to a symbiotic relationship with the humans who keep them."

"... You _would_ be something that keeps me away, wouldn't you?" Bakura teased.

Ryou smirked up at him. "Only because I don't want to share my dinner!"

The Bed Bug laughed at that, and scooped Ryou up into a hug, squeezing him tightly, causing Ryou to burst out into laughter himself. Ryou's body folded and compressed and squeezed easily under Bakura's grip, and Marik wondered if that meant his friend was now filled with cotton, like a stuffed animal.

"You horn is made of crystal and glows in the dark," Mahad was saying. "The light can be used to deter other monsters, temporarily blinding them and keeping them away, but it can also be used to lure younger humans to you, as the light soothes them."

Something about that made Marik think of angler fish for some reason.

"You're so colorful, Ryou!" Yugi squeaked.

The newly formed Night Light beamed happily as he jumped out from Bakura's arms. "I know! And I'm _warm_!" He wrapped his arms around himself, the colorful patches on his body contrasting with the bright colors of his hair. "I used to be so cold all the time, and pale, and sickly. And this new body is the opposite!"

… Yeah, Ryou didn't sound like he would be eager to turn back into his original body anytime soon.

Yugi was last in line. He looked a little bit like a human-sized bat, with black fur all over his body and black bat wings were his arms should have been; he almost looked like Anzu, in that regard. His face wasn't nearly as fuzzy as the rest of his body, and his ears and nose had been replaced with the triangular nose and sharp ears of a bat.

The non-bat portions of his face revealed transparent skin, and his skeleton could be seen beneath it. It made him look kind of ghostly. Like a human-sized ghost bat or something.

"And Yugi..." The king's voice took on a strangely delighted sort of sound. " _You_ are what's called a Bump in the Night. A beast that flies through the night air using echolocation."

"And you're so _cute_!" Anzu and Mana suddenly squealed, each lady monster appearing on either side of Yugi. The little man-bat jumped yelped, startled, and launched himself forward without realizing he had.

When Yugi jumped, he hit the king square in the face, sending both of them toppling to the ground. The king's mask flew off his face, landing on the ground nearby with a dull 'thud.' A murmur rose up among the guards and they all took a step towards their fallen king, but one wave of his hand stopped them all in their tracks.

The king drew himself back into an upright position, sitting on the ground with Yugi in his lap. Before Yugi could get up, the king's arms came to rest around his shoulders, keeping him in place.

"They _are_ right, Yugi," the king murmured, and Marik realized that his mouth didn't move when he spoke. His voice was honeyed, and his three eyes were all focused on Yugi and filled with adoration. "You _are_ so terribly adorable."

He leaned forward suddenly, planting a kiss to the corner of Yugi's mouth. Yugi squeaked in alarm, and a blush grew along his face as he hid behind his wings. The king just smiled, still holding the former human in his lap, and began rubbing circles into Yugi's back and arms.

.

.

.

The trip back to the palace felt shorter somehow than their trip out had. They had an extra horse on their return trip – the king took Yugi with him on his own horse. Yugi sat behind the king, hanging onto the ruler's cape, and gradually began to lean against the monstrous monarch, slowly relaxing.

Marik smiled to himself as he looked between Yugi with the king and Ryou with Bakura. In the relatively short time he'd known the two of them, he couldn't remember seeing them look so calm and content.

Ishizu also rode her horse nearby, and she kept turning to look at Rishid as he walked alongside the magicians, as though she were waiting for a reaction of some sort from him. As near as Marik could tell, the Tome Keeper didn't seem very personally interested in his sister's change, but he couldn't help but notice how the wolfish magician Karim kept sneaking glances at her. He was looking at her like a school boy with a crush, and it made Marik wonder.

Two hands suddenly grabbed him and a face loomed in out of the corner of his eye, and the newly formed Sand Wyrm reacted instinctively, turning his head and opening his mouth, letting his striped tongue lash out against his assailant, striking him square in the face.

Belatedly, he remembered that he was sharing a horse with Yamalik, as he stared in bewilderment as where his tongue was stuck against the Book Wyrm's cheek.

Yamalik laughed aloud, amused. "I see you're already adjusting to your new body, huh, cutie?"

Marik pulled his tongue back into his mouth, snapping his jaw shut behind it. He didn't know if he was more surprised or embarrassed by his own action, and he whipped his head so that he was stiffly facing forward.

That didn't deter Yamalik in the slightest. The Book Wyrm leaned over Marik's shoulder, and licked him, running his tongue along Marik's jawbone. "I think we should do a full exploration of your new body when we get back to the palace. What do you think? We can test it and see how everything works for you."

Out of the corner of his eye, Marik saw Ishizu watching them, and he smirked. He turned around in the saddle, so that he was facing Yamalik, and stuck his striped tongue out at him, still grinning. "Why wait until then?"

He audibly heard his sister gasp as his and Yamalik's lips met, and it was nothing short of deeply satisfying.

.

.

.

They were still making out when the procession arrived once more at the front steps of the palace. Marik was pretty sure that everyone was fairly uncomfortable as this point, and he felt a little bad about doing such a thing to his friends, but the looks of pure unadulterated horror on Ishizu's and Rishid's faces more than made up for any feeling of shame he had.

Rishid frowned and sighed as he walked past them. "Be back to working in the library by afternoon, Yamalik," was all he said.

He had a lot more to say to Ishizu when he approached where she was standing dismounted from her horse. "How are you feeling with your change, Miss Ishizu?"

"Oh, fine! Wonderful!" Ishizu smiled up at him. It looked like her mouth was filled with several rows of sharp teeth, like a shark's mouth. "I may be a little clumsy with these new limbs right now, but I'm sure I'll be back to work in no time!"

Rishid's frown returned. "Yes, about that. I'm sure you'll be working again soon, but I'm afraid it won't be in the library."

Her face fell, and she blinked. "What?"

The Tome Keeper glanced at the claws that extended from her fingertips. "I'm sorry, but monsters with animalistic qualities are forbidden from working regularly in the palace library. We handle a lot of fragile books and documents, and beasts with claws are too much of a danger to our tomes."

He smiled at her and walked away before she could say anything. "Sorry, but you are hereby fired from the library."

Marik felt his jaw drop open, his tongue hanging out of his mouth in shock.

Ishizu turned and glared at him suddenly. She growled as she began to approach him and Yamalik, evidently full of rage.

"This is all your fault!" she hissed. Her pupils dilated like an animal's, and Marik could see muscles clenching all along her limbs. " _You_ did this to me! You little cretin – you did this to your own sister!"

" _I_ didn't do anything! _You_ decided to change yourself for a man who didn't even care about you in the first place, not _me_!" She looked like a wounded animal, but Marik forged ahead. "Look. Listen. Ishizu..."

He sighed and started again, keeping his voice low enough that the other's couldn't hear. "You and I have never been particularly close. And I would never wish any harm upon you. But I also can't honestly say that I love you like a sister. In fact, the only feeling I have for you is disgust." He frowned and looked her in the eyes. "This is a new chapter of our lives, and from here on out, I will no longer regard you as my sister."

"What are you saying-?!"

He cut her off before she could continue. "Starting now, we are strangers who have never met before. I don't know you or particularly care about your personal life, and I would appreciate it if you treated me the same way."

Ishizu growled deep in her throat, glaring between Marik and Yamalik. "You would choose him over me?"

"In a heartbeat."

"How serious are you with him?"

That brought something of a smile to Marik's face, and he saw the same smile reflected back at him from Yamalik's face. "Oh, we're not serious at all. We're just having fun together. If we're bored with one another by next week, then so be it, but we're going to enjoy ourselves until then."

The Sand Wyrm and Book Wyrm both threw their arms around each other as they turned to walk off. They didn't give Ishizu a chance to respond, and Marik didn't care if she did or not.

He _did_ however hear Karim walk up behind them. It sounded like he may have been offering to teach Ishizu if she was interested in becoming a magician, but Marik didn't care to listen too closely. After all, he didn't want to eavesdrop on a stranger's conversation.

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.

Days passed by. Days that turned into weeks, and then months.

Marik decided to move to the Wastelands around Halloween Town. He was drawn to the heat and the barren land.

The Knights of Fright hadn't been seen or heard of since their fight with Dartz and his vampire minions, and the vampires hadn't been heard of either, leaving the Wastelands without their primary threat.

Marik went to work harvesting pumpkins. It felt a little bit like farming and a little bit like hunting, and it earned him enough money to buy goods for a home of his own. It was little more than a shed and a hole that led to an underground lair, but it was still a home, and he was satisfied with it.

Yamalik came out to visit him every once in awhile. He always brought books with him, and often left them behind when he returned to the palace; this happened so often that Marik was beginning to wonder if his boyfriend was going to move in with him or not, but they hadn't discussed it yet.

Ryou had moved in with Bakura in his home in Halloween Town, and Marik would sometimes visit them when he went into town. The Bed Bug and the Night Light were often seen together around town, Bakura's dark shadows and Ryou's glowing light contrasting and complimenting each other. They traveled between the Surface World and the Hollow World to feed, never staying in one place for very long, and were even talking about buying a place in Duat and moving there.

It wasn't hard to see that Ryou seemed to have no intention of moving back to the Surface World. He was happy with Bakura, and Marik figured that if such a time ever came that Ryou were to return to the land of the living, he would probably bring the Bed Bug with him.

Yugi's path hadn't been so straightforward. He'd actually returned to Halloween Town at first, where he got a job working at Kisara's inn. But, King Atem kept coming to visit him, every weekend like clockwork, and eventually the monstrous monarch had coaxed Yugi to return to the palace with him.

The human-turned-bat was sweet on the king, as anyone could see, and the feeling was clearly mutual. Marik wasn't sure what exactly Yugi was so scared of, but it was nice to see him finally look past his fears for once. Yamalik was good at keeping the Sand Wyrm up to date on all the palace gossip, and it sounded like Yugi and Atem were happy together, and spent much of their time in the palace garden.

And then there was Ishizu. Marik never sought communication with her, and, to her credit, she never sought him out either. But Yamalik had mentioned seeing her around the library a few times recently, wearing the robes of a magician in training, and it made Marik wonder very briefly about the woman who had once been his sister and the new path she'd chosen.

.

.

.

Marik was neighbors with Adina now. It was almost funny to think that the first person he'd met in this underworld would end up being someone he lived close by to. She still tended to her land, raising her crops (and he was still to afraid to ask exactly what those crops were), and they would sometimes meet when they were working outside and would hold polite conversation.

"How long to you think you'll be staying?" Adina asked one day. "Will you return to the Surface World when the Rifts reopen, or will you remain in the Hollow World?"

Marik lit a candle in the jack-o'-lantern he had just finished carving, placing it beside his front door. He and Yamalik had just officially moved in together last week, and they'd been working on redecorating the outside of their home.

The Sand Wyrm tilted his head to the side, thoughtfully.

"I don't know," he finally answered. "Maybe a week, maybe forever."

He saw Yamalik nearby, hungrily stalking a beetle that ran along the ground, and he couldn't help but smile to himself.

Adina shrugged, her tittering voice echoing out of the many mouths of her dolls. "So long as you're safe, happy, and healthy. Those are the important things."

Marik smiled at her, wholeheartedly agreeing.

And when Yamalik's rubbery arms wrapped around him later and carried him to bed, that smile was still on his face.

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The End.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **\- So, we've reached the final chapter. But, as this journey ends, a new journey is beginning. And who knows what important choices they'll make next?**

 **\- In the same way, our song lyrics have come full circle, and we're back to the start of the song again.**

 **\- At one point, I thought of doing an epilogue for this story, where we would flash 10 years into the future: Marik and Yamalik were still going to be living together, Ishizu was going to be engaged to Karim, Ryou and Bakura were going to be married and raising an adopted son (Ryouken/Revolver from 'Vrains), and Yugi and Atem were going to be married and raising two magically-created children of their own (Yusaku/Playmaker and Aoi/Blue Angel from 'Vrains'). I ended up not writing it, but I thought some of you guys might still like to hear it.**

 **\- When randomly generating monster-types for the characters, Marik got 'gorgon + mummy.' So he's very snake-based, but he's also a little bit like Atem, with his sandy skin. I decided to call him a 'Sand Wyrm,' partially to make him kind of match Yamalik and partially just as another nod to the "Beetlejuice" franchise.**

 **\- Ishizu got 'werewolf + werecat.' So... animal.**

 **\- Ryou got 'living toy + unicorn,' and the idea of him being a plush, rainbow unicorn was too cute to pass up.**

 **\- Yugi got 'skeleton + bat-creature.' So he is predominantly a bat-creature, but you can see his skeleton beneath the fur and skin.**

 **\- Just like "the Nightmare before Christmas, we end with a happy romance!**

 **...**

 **I've been writing this story for a little under a year, and been trying to get it started for five years. I changed my mind about it several, _several_ times, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out ultimately, and I hope you guys enjoyed it too.**

 **Thank you for reading this silly story of mine all the way through, and thank you to everyone who left reviews. You guys are all the best, and I appreciate you all! ^_^**


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